List

Culture

  • A ‘culture of X’ is not the same as a culture of ‘training on X’. Safety is a good example.

    Organizations have traditionally used a three-legged approach to creating a ‘culture’: Communications, training and compliance. None of those in isolation […]

  • Training and culture change. The love affair that ends in tears.

    It seems to be very hard for people to get away from the idea that, if we just put individuals […]

  • I challenge you with this quiz, when applied to your own organization.

    There are about 200 people in the organization. But 10 of them at the top are very powerful In fact, […]

  • History is constructed. The leader’s legacy is not retrospective. We build it daily, so we’d better test it.

    I previously wrote about company cultures having a glue, The One Global Culture does not exist. But pretending that it […]

  • The One Global Culture does not exist. But pretending that it does holds us together.

    The so-called One Global Culture is a confederation of: (a) Geographical cultures and sub-cultures (Italy, USA, France etc) (b) Functional, […]

  • We, ourselves are the biggest exporters of problems in the organizations we work for

    The great Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset wrote about the early 20th Century Spanish society as being ‘led by people who […]

  • Grab the magic thresholds in the organization’s life

    Continuous culture shaping within an organization equals social movement: large scale behavioural and cultural change, for a purpose, powered by […]

  • 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 […]

  • I dread ‘robust’ and ‘sustainable’ cultures

    Culture is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it can host the most beautiful and sophisticated developments, enhance people’s life, […]

  • The collective as a bad sum. When collaboration becomes co-recreation and the sum is smaller than the parts.

    In my dealings with organizations of many sizes and shapes, cultures and geographies, I always find very fine individuals of […]

  • Behaviours are the syntax of the organization. Values are the grammar. Your space in the world is the story.

    Your linguistic and behavioural frame must be in sync. Story, values and behaviours need to be solid and well connected. […]

  • From ‘us and them’ to ‘us with them’. Don’t kill the ‘us’ on behalf of a fictitious ‘global’.

    I sometimes think that many global ‘one company’ initiatives are missing the point. The intentions are good: ‘look, we are […]

  • Mondays shape Tuesdays. If you could just fast forward…

    Winston Churchill said, referring to the Houses of Parliament in the UK, ‘We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us’. […]

  • My top 5 Leadership questions at the top of the agenda

    Here are my top five from my organizational consulting work. The paraphrasing is mine, the ownership is shared with my […]

  • 8 hard arguments on culture for people who think this is fluffy, woolly, soft stuff

    Culture is the difference between 30 people making a decision in 30 days, and 3 people making the same decision […]

  • Behaviours create culture, not the other way around.

    Extract taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas […]

  • Demonising hierarchy is easy and politically correct but not terribly efficient.

    Extracts taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas needs […]

  • Defining ourselves by what we are against, does not advance the cause of the for

    I have always been a bit wary of people who repeatedly define themselves by what they are against. It makes […]

  • The ‘who-does-what’ and the ‘who-knows-what’ models of the organization, lead to different worlds.

    If you had to build an organization from scratch, or re-design one, you would have options about some models to […]

  • Single track thinking, the road to a sure end (if you don’t care whether it’s the right end or the wrong end)

    Continuing with thoughts on critical thinking…. ‘Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then […]

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      Daily Thoughts

    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 […]
    July 9th, 2021

    All the roads lead to Rome, but mind the axle of the car

    A friend of mine Carlos Orozco  uses this analogy. If you are driving a car and you have a puncture, you’ll try […]
    July 8th, 2021

    The unsaid and unsayable are at the deeper layers of culture

    When trying to understand a culture, there will be plenty of visible things to look at, to hear and to […]
    July 7th, 2021

    The cult of issues. The culture in which airtime is dominated by problems and where navel-gazing is king

    Some cultures a very introspective. In a healthy way. Some are pathologically introspective and spend a lot of time dissecting […]
    July 6th, 2021

    A tsunami of navel-gazing, force 11, is impacting business, society and politics. And individual identity.

    I don’t like to sound gloomy, but, is the current self-centrism an epidemic of colossal proportions? Or, another way to […]
    July 5th, 2021

    Sharing thoughts, being carriers, and why there are no idiots anymore

    I have described before the role of managers in many ways, often pointing to the risk of becoming ‘information traffic […]
    July 2nd, 2021

    Walking e-bays bearing second hand thoughts

    We are pulled to conform to the group, to participate, to contribute, to say something. Nodding is not enough. Taking […]
    July 1st, 2021

    Where is home? A serious management question to employees

    I am (in) IT, I work for X (company) I work for X (company), I am in IT These are […]
    June 30th, 2021

    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 […]
    June 29th, 2021

    Preach your values all the time, when necessary use words

    This is plagiarism, of course. I am stealing 13th Century Saint, Francis of Assisi’s  line: ‘Preach the Gospel all the […]
    June 28th, 2021

    Thesaurus – based value and behaviours systems are meaningless, exhausted and cheap

    Let’s start somewhere else. What is the logic behind Listmania? Very often there isn’t one. But starting a note/blog/communication with […]
    June 25th, 2021

    Values don’t pre-exist, their behaviours do, then values are born, e.g. there is no such thing as kindness.

    There is no such thing as kindness. Unless, and until, somebody does something to another human being who can feel […]
    June 24th, 2021

    Memo: Permission never required, so don’t ask

    I read a while ago this story. Within the highly structured and hierarchical (by design) Catholic church, a Religious Order […]
    June 23rd, 2021

    A new word for corporate life: de-corporatization

    In my world, ‘corporate’ is synonymous with big structure, big processes and big systems. Of course, it is not its […]
    June 22nd, 2021

    The minority tyranny in the organization

    Nassim Taleb’s piece in Medium some time ago entitled The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority is one […]
    June 21st, 2021

    ‘How can we make this fail?” is a more powerful question than its opposite

    Accustomed as we are to creating plans to succeed on something, this may sound counterintuitive. Creating (serious) plans for failure […]
    June 18th, 2021

    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 […]
    June 17th, 2021

    Lose control, to gain more control: Starting the Control Diet

    I said in yesterday’s Daily Thought that we needed to grab the (management) Paradox of Control. The more we lose […]
    June 16th, 2021

    Lose control, to gain more control: The paradox and the symptoms

    The more ‘command-and-control’ you practice, the less control you actually have and the more you’ll need to command. In today’s […]
    June 15th, 2021

    Collective Leadership: Two Acid Tests

    THIS THURSDAY – don’t miss our final live webinar in the ‘A Better Way’ series, when Mark Storm and I […]
    June 14th, 2021

    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 […]
    June 11th, 2021

    Management upside down: global is local, leadership goes grassroots, top is at the bottom and traditional management needs a retirement party

    It is perhaps the Age of Inversion. The weights have gone the other way. Globalisation, big G, or small g, […]
    June 10th, 2021

    Can anybody dispel the mystery for me, please? Who are ‘they’?

    These are commonly found uses of the expression ‘they’ within organizations. They won’t approve this They don’t get it They […]
    June 9th, 2021

    Full of Embassies: The company is not an Internal Diplomatic Service

    People in organizations spend a lot of time representing somebody else or something else. It feels sometimes that the company […]
    June 7th, 2021

    Strong thinkers are critical thinkers. Critical thinking can be embedded in the culture.

    Strong thinking and strong ideas are great. We need people to defend them, champion them and feel passionate about them. […]
    June 5th, 2021

    The 4 hats of leadership in the modern organization

    The trouble with the talking about leadership is that we have made a big basket of it and thrown in […]
    June 4th, 2021

    Top Influencers 2, Top Leadership 1 (Hierarchical power in the organization is half of the ‘peer-to-peer’ power)

    Let me share a piece of our own research that has just come up from the oven. In a 1200 […]
    June 3rd, 2021

    Corporate culture as a social movement

    Large scale mobilization and alignment of people, united through common goals yet everybody is in different and diverse roles with […]
    June 2nd, 2021

    John Kotter’s 8 Step Change Management model is the best change model of the last Century. Why this is still alive in 2021 is beyond me.

    John Kotter, Harvard Emeritus Professor and prolific author, has made a significant contribution to Leadership and Change for many years. […]
    June 1st, 2021

    Here is the good news: good values, translated into behaviours, are contagious

    How do you make values live? Install them in a culture? Model 1: You preach them and preach them, and […]
    May 31st, 2021

    Change management theories have only interpreted the organizational world. The point, however, is to actually change it.

    Since we all love conceptual frames, it is not surprising that in the area of ‘change management’ there are a […]
    May 28th, 2021

    Debunking the Myths of Employee Engagement: a land of ‘Emperors with No Clothes’. The six models.

    Since employee engagement has become an industry in its own right, and is taking over a lot of air time, […]
    May 26th, 2021

    Confronted with dysfunctionality, reorganization as a solution must be the last resort, not the first

    Most of our organizational problems are behavioural. Structural answers hardly solve behavioural problems. Amalgamating A and B because A and […]
    May 25th, 2021

    Some restructuring does not seem part of the solution. Bigger problems continue to appear. And now the Fire Brigade has a permanent seat in the Boardroom.

    Stanislav Andreski ( 1919-2007) in his little big book Social Science as Sorcery, writing about the influence of the social […]
    May 24th, 2021

    What do these have in common? Designing organizations, aquariums and fish soup.

    Commenting on the communist legacy, a soviet academic Oleg Bogomolov, who must have known a thing or two about things […]
    May 21st, 2021

    Organizational structures that (dis) aggregate by design

    New organizations and old ones in the business of transforming themselves, would be better off learning by heart these two […]
    May 20th, 2021

    Redesigning the organization. This is the best time for an upgrade.

    If you had the possibility of designing an ideal organizational structure or redesigning one that you already have, what would […]
    May 19th, 2021

    Listening is more than being silent. Learn to spot the listener and call out the ones who pretend.

    There is a difference between listening and just waiting to speak. You can spot people doing either. Some people don’t […]
    May 18th, 2021

    Restructuring to force collaboration, is likely to create more anxiety than collaboration. Structural solutions for behavioural problems hardly work.

    Sometimes restructuring is done with the intention of solving a collaboration problem. A people don’t talk to B people; if […]
    May 17th, 2021

    Accountability holes? Desert spaces? Orphan ideas? Buy the tent, occupy the street.

    Any organization has accountability holes, areas where nobody really owns the space. Sometimes these are true ‘grey areas’, sometimes are […]
    May 14th, 2021

    The moral choices of leadership, courtesy of Pedro, my taxi driver in Panama

    I broke my antisocial tradition during taxi rides and started a conversation with my Panama driver. I asked him who […]
    May 13th, 2021

    The fastest and best way to build a creative culture: all revealed now

    The fastest and best way to build a creative culture is to have lots of creative people together. No kidding. […]
    May 12th, 2021

    Entering as a question mark, leaving as a period

    We were all born as questions. The old saying that ‘children enter school as question marks and leave as full […]
    May 11th, 2021

    To Scale or not to scale? This is the Shakespearean culture question.

    Behavioural/cultural shaping in organizations does not scale up by the leaders simply having the right mindset and motivation. A mechanism […]
    May 10th, 2021

    The world is flat, leadership is global and I want to go home

    Where is home? Ask this question to an Irishman or Irish woman. Even if they have been living abroad for […]
    May 7th, 2021

    15 things to look for in a culture

    Over the years, I have had lots of conversations about ‘corporate culture’ and in particular  ‘what to measure’. I must […]
    May 6th, 2021

    Leave your sandals at the door

    This is the request we make at the beginning of a Viral Change™ programme. Forget your function and your hierarchical […]
    May 5th, 2021

    What I learnt from the monks: a little anthropology of leadership and space on one page

    My friends, monks of a Benedictine monastery in the Highlands, Scotland, spend most of the time in silence. I mean, […]
    May 4th, 2021

    FAQs to myself (about organizational life)

    In my work as Organization Architect, I have dealt with clients of many sizes, shapes and colours over the years. […]
    May 3rd, 2021

    Not even bottom-up. Certainly not top-down. Lasting organizational change is a polycentric social movement, or it isn’t.

    In organizational life we are used to the dichotomy ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom up’, for example, when we talk about change. […]
    April 30th, 2021

    A ‘culture of X’ is not the same as a culture of ‘training on X’. Safety is a good example.

    Organizations have traditionally used a three-legged approach to creating a ‘culture’: Communications, training and compliance. None of those in isolation […]
    April 29th, 2021

    Training and culture change. The love affair that ends in tears.

    It seems to be very hard for people to get away from the idea that, if we just put individuals […]
    April 28th, 2021

    Is victimhood a good model to understand some forms of employee disengagement?

    I have been researching for a while the not-that-easy topic of ‘cognitive mental frames’ or ‘mental models’ that take over […]
    April 27th, 2021

    Micro-behaviours plus peer-to-peer equals social change dynamite

    Serious behavioural change? Start with micro-behaviours, then walk backwards to values, never the other way around. And bring peer-to-peer or […]
    April 26th, 2021

    Rewarding collaboration by reinforcing individual contributions is management’s decaffeinated espresso: good taste, no effect.

    Can we work on the collective and reward the individualistic? Well, sure you can, it happens every day. But it’s […]
    April 23rd, 2021

    The year of the peer (one of us, people like me, my horizontal tribe)

    If I were the one in charge of deciding the ‘person of the year’ for the front cover of Time […]
    April 22nd, 2021

    A mobilizing platform is the human operating system of the company. You need to install your HOS.

    I said previously that large scale mobilization of people (AKA social movements, AKA company culture) needs a platform. They don’t […]
    April 21st, 2021

    Networks have hierarchies and hierarchies have networks. Excuse the ranting.

    When I was young, very young, many moons ago, I remember my school mates and the priests having discussions such […]
    April 20th, 2021

    Large scale mobilization of people needs a small scale set of orchestrators. It works in society and it works in organizations.

    I wish I could remember where I read these stats.  Russia under the Tsar 1914-1917…had 180 million peasants and workers […]
    April 19th, 2021

    The Twenty Percenters

    It is said that in any organization, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. I often think that […]
    April 16th, 2021

    Great players, great training, wrong game

    It’s a new world out there. You’ll realise this truth if you open the windows of your organization and let […]
    April 15th, 2021

    If you have two guys who think the same, fire one of them

    I must have heard this for the first time from Tom Peters many years ago. He was, and he is, […]
    April 14th, 2021

    Have your Big White Board of Distractions in front of you. Keep your list very fresh. Then, execute the strategy.

    If you want to execute a strategy, you want to keep cool and move inexorably forward, and if you think […]
    April 13th, 2021

    7 Rules to negotiate and lead (and control your destiny). Number 5 is the tricky one.

    Control the conversation. Control the dialogue. Don’t accept a dialogue imposed on you. Common ground is OK, but only if […]
    April 12th, 2021

    My friends, the monks’, secret weapon: the asterisk. I want 2021 leadership with tons of them.

    My best friends are monks of the type that don’t talk much. So we don’t talk much. I visit them […]
    April 10th, 2021

    If I were the CEO’s speechwriter for a day, this is the speech I would pass on

    Daily Thought featured in: Camino – Leadership Notes on the Road Don’t look at us, at the leadership at the […]
    April 8th, 2021

    ‘Management’ is political campaigning inside. Leadership is winning campaigns.

    Warning: This statement will be dismissed. But, before you do that, I’d ask you to consider the differences between ‘organizational […]
    April 6th, 2021

    Leadership and the art of managing disappointments

    A less spoken feature of great leadership is the art of managing the disappointments created by that same leadership. I […]
    April 3rd, 2021

    10 Rules of Self-Survival: The Border Diet

    Try my Border Diet: A diet to protect yourself against persistent Full Disclosure that the digital world forces upon you. […]
    April 2nd, 2021

    Reflection is subversive. Uprise! Slow down!

    Space to reflect? Where is that? Are you saying we are not reflective? Don’t we have intelligence? Are you suggesting […]
    April 1st, 2021

    The three ‘magic’ words: transparency, clarity and fairness

    These three organizational ‘magic words’ manage to get mixed up a lot. It’s hard to believe because they are so […]
    March 31st, 2021

    ‘Grasp the facts, misses the meaning’: The Leadership Dyslexia upon us

    Did we ever, ever have more facts around us? Certainly not. We talk about Big Data. It is of course […]
    March 30th, 2021

    Introducing Three Unruly Friends

    The monastic tradition in the Christian world has these 3 magic S that have been present since the Fathers of […]
    March 29th, 2021

    A 3-point leadership strategy for your transformation, small t, big T

    In caricature, this is a 3-point strategy to develop further. It’s a simple mental and practical frame. Build an overwhelming, […]
    March 26th, 2021

    Leadership: The way of the Cat and the way of the Monkey

    There are two ways to carry a baby – in ancient Hinduism tradition – the way of the cat and […]
    March 25th, 2021

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

    TODAY’s the day – join me, for my Book Launch Webinar at 17:30 (UK time). Register Now. I’ll be discussing […]
    March 24th, 2021

    ‘Our best days are yet to come. Our proudest moments are yet to be. Our most glorious achievements are just ahead’

    Don’t miss my book launch webinar TOMORROW. Book your seat! I’ll be discussing themes from my new book Camino – […]
    March 23rd, 2021

    My 20 Rules of Leadership

    Delighted to announce…Camino – Leadership Notes on the Road launches TODAY! You can order your copy or register for my […]
    March 22nd, 2021

    If leadership in organizations followed some ‘activism rules’; not standard management logic. Here is one rule.

    Join my live webinar THIS WEEK. Book your seat! I’ll be discussing leadership as a praxis…’no one is ever a leader, […]
    March 20th, 2021

    Employee loyalty is a plural. Leadership is the host of that plurality, always an irrational mix

    6 days to go until my live webinar. Book your seat! I’ll be discussing leadership as a praxis…’no one is […]
    March 19th, 2021

    3 Inconvenient truths about leadership and change

    ONLY ONE WEEK to go before my live webinar. Book your seat! I’ll be discussing leadership as a praxis…’no one […]
    March 17th, 2021

    When your organization not only has good leadership but is a Leadership Lab, a live School for Leaders, we are talking serious cutting edge

    Join my webinar next week! To mark the launch of my new book: Camino – Leadership Notes on the Road. […]
    March 15th, 2021

    The Leader with Seven Faces. A model of leadership that requires a mirror.

    Don’t miss my Book Launch webinar on 25th March Join me as I discuss Camino – Leadership Notes on the Road […]
    March 12th, 2021

    The video and the audio of empowerment are out of sync

    Register for my Book Launch webinar on 25th March? Join me as I discuss Camino – Leadership Notes on the […]
    March 10th, 2021

    Shifting the narrative: one of the finest roles of leadership

    Have you registered for my webinar on 25th March? Join me as I discuss my new book – Camino – Leadership […]
    March 8th, 2021

    All thoughts come out of silence. Leadership development may turn out to be free after all.

    My virtual book launch event is on 25th March. Register here. Join me as I discuss my new book – Camino […]
    March 5th, 2021

    It takes only one question to know about your model of leadership (and there is always an alternative question, just in case)

    My virtual book launch event is on 25th March. Register here. Join me as I discuss my new book – […]
    March 3rd, 2021

    It’s official: the single, magic bullet, that characterises good leadership is to back off

    MY NEW BOOK – CAMINO: LEADERSHIP NOTES ON THE ROAD, AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER   A Daily Thought featured in Camino: […]
    March 1st, 2021

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

    CAMINO – LEADERSHIP NOTES ON THE ROAD NOW AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER An extensive collection of my Daily Thoughts on leadership. […]
    February 26th, 2021

    Authentically Disruptive

    Pope Francis has introduced disruption. The head of the 1.2 billion Catholic Church lives in a one bedroom apart-hotel, produces […]
    February 24th, 2021

    No milk, no honey, enjoy the journey

    Taken from my new book Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road. ‘Nobody is ever a leader. Becoming one is […]
    February 22nd, 2021

    Three magic questions for leaders

    Daily Thought taken from my new book Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road. Read preview extracts: Camino – Extract […]
    February 19th, 2021

    Good leaders are a bit like corporate anthropologists, without the six months in Tanzania

    Good leaders are a bit like corporate anthropologists. In fact, we are all exotics on the payroll. In my idiosyncratic […]
    February 17th, 2021

    The organization’s collective self-belief is often hidden. Leaders need to hear the unsaid.

    Taken from my forthcoming book: Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road. Read Extract Chapter 1 Part 2.    Some organizations or […]
    February 15th, 2021

    All teams with a ‘sell-by-date’

    Taken from my forthcoming book: Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road. Read NEW extract Chapter 1 part 2   Imagine that […]
    February 12th, 2021

    ‘The top leaders are not specific, they don’t tell us what they expect’. This is very good news.

    Talking about leadership teams at the top, I often hear ‘they launch these words but they don’t give specifics’, or […]
    February 10th, 2021

    Leadership dialects: you are supposed to join a party, but don’t get an invitation

    Taken from my forthcoming book: Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road. Read NEW extract Chapter 1 part 2   […]
    February 8th, 2021

    Leadership scaffolding. Let’s try this mental model

    Leadership can be taught, of course, but not in the same way as teaching how to drive a car or […]
    February 5th, 2021

    Thought leadership is making people think, or there is not much thought or leadership. Maybe journalistic leadership?

    Taken from my forthcoming book, Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road.   Download an extract of Chapter 1 here: Extract Camino […]
    February 3rd, 2021

    Leadership in organizations is about mobilizing people. The leader is a ‘Social Arsonist’

    ‘A good organizer is a social arsonist who goes around setting people on fire.’—Fred Ross Fred Ross (1910-1992) American community […]
    February 1st, 2021

    Bring ‘character’ back

    We call it character assassination for a reason. It’s the ultimate attack. The attack to the uniqueness of an individual, […]
    January 29th, 2021

    ‘Self, us and now’: the very old, uncomfortable trio for a modern look at leadership

    Hillel the Elder, or ‘Rabbi’ Hillel, a Jewish leader who died in 10 CE, is remembered outside the Jewish tradition […]
    January 27th, 2021

    Your mental frame, as defined by words, will dictate your actions. Even your values. Words are dictators.

    The purpose of the organization is… The objectives of the strategy are… The reason why we have restructured is… From […]
    January 25th, 2021

    ‘I am the captain. We are on a collision course.’

    Taken from my soon to be released book, Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road.    This is a great story […]
    January 22nd, 2021

    Corporate grammar could learn from Obama’s spelling guidelines

    Taken from my soon to be released book, Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road  ‘This isn’t a period, it’s a […]
    January 20th, 2021

    The Tragedy of the Obvious

    Taken from my soon to be released book, Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road    ‘A man was leading a […]
    January 18th, 2021

    If in doubt, make it personal

    Taken from my soon to be released book, Camino – Leadership Notes On The Road    Invited to present at TEDx […]
    December 24th, 2020

    Happy Christmas and New Year to the Daily Thoughts Community

    Happy Christmas and New Year to everybody in the Daily Thoughts community. We have all had the most challenging year […]
    December 19th, 2020

    The Irish Health Service’s silent culture revolution was driven by ‘if-not-us-who?’ employees

    Four years ago, starting in the Midwest of Ireland and replicating to other parts of the country, a bottom up […]
    December 18th, 2020

    Storytelling wins wars whilst everybody else is fighting battles (1 of 3): the ingredients

    Today, we are in front of daily wars of narratives: political, social, models of the world, futures, concept of Man. […]
    December 17th, 2020

    The corporate mille-feuille. Layers of initiatives don’t touch each other

    In a large company, what do a leadership development, a culture change and a business integration programme typically have in […]
    December 16th, 2020

    The alternative post-mortem of failed change programmes(5 of 5): we communicate too much

    In this mini series I have shared so far four inconvenient truths uncovered by the forensics of ‘change management’ failure: […]
    December 15th, 2020

    The alternative Post-mortem of failed change programmes. (4 of 5): Too much vision, not lack of it

    Fourth in the mini series:  uncovering of truths of the failure of change and transformation programmes via a reverse engineering. […]
    December 14th, 2020

    The alternative Post-mortem of failed change programmes. (3 of 5): Antibodies to start with.

    Third instalment in the uncovering of truths via a reverse engineering of the failure of change and transformation programmes. Finding: […]
    December 12th, 2020

    The alternative post-mortem of failed change programmes. (2 of 5): It was fireworks and corporate flash mobs

    Second instalment in the uncovering of truths via a reverse engineering of the failure of change and transformation programmes. Many […]
    December 11th, 2020

    The alternative post-mortem of failed change programmes. (1 of 5): There were too many people involved and too much debate. Not the opposite.

    This five part mini-series (!) is not glamorous. It tries to uncover some inconvenient truths via a reverse engineering of […]
    December 10th, 2020

    The impact of unintended/extended positive consequences of organizational initiatives maybe bigger than the individual desired outcomes. So who sees them?

    ‘Co-benefit’ is a term broadly used in the Climate Change movement to explain the unintended/extended consequences of actions beyond an […]
    December 9th, 2020

    Agree conceptually on values, then abandon the labels as fast as you can and focus on their behavioural translation

    In my Daily Thought back in September, I suggested that leadership competence-based systems may be better at providing a language […]
    December 8th, 2020

    The pharma company that forgot to display its purpose

    A few years ago, I was in the lobby of a global pharma company waiting for my appointment. I sat […]
    December 7th, 2020

    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 […]
    December 5th, 2020

    Imperfect data, imperfect instructions, low predictability, high trust: just a model for business (from boat racing)

    My very good client BTG plc created a habit of getting leadership teams together to race boats for a day, […]
    December 4th, 2020

    Orphan grenades: the worse form of friendly fire in the organization. Some examples.

    We have a problem in Division A. Leaders are not doing their job. Leaders are not living the values. Some […]
    December 3rd, 2020

    The courage to listen: because it might take us to conclusions different from the ones we have already made

    Madeleine Albright, politician and diplomat; former and first female U.S. Secretary of State, said in her Commencement Speech at Scripps […]
    December 2nd, 2020

    12 Rules For A Behavioural Counter-Epidemic To Deal With Covid-19

    In the short term, the health of all of us depends largely on people following public health rules (masks, distance, […]
    December 1st, 2020

    Defeatism and cynicism are two toxic sisters that need to be challenged. Every minute of silence is a terrible complicity in the erosion of hope.

    A slow growth cancer in organizations. People unnecessarily and gratuitously condemning the company to an impossible future: we will never […]
    November 30th, 2020

    Create spaces for fast innovation: kindle ideas in your own Lab126

    We are social animals. We live in spaces, with rules, with rituals, in tribal environments. We are both architects of […]
    November 28th, 2020

    Standing out, standing for, sameness and differentiation. Just thinking aloud

    Let me elevate the question of ‘differentiation’ to a higher level. Product differentiation? Sure. How different is different? That is […]
    November 27th, 2020

    Don’t let the expression ‘this is just business’ be synonymous for inhuman. Business? Not in my name.

    Somewhere along the line, in the history of ‘business’, something went wrong and people took the wrong turn at the […]
    November 26th, 2020

    Focus, focus! But only after un-focusing a lot

    Our managerial training and praxis has been quite successful at making us guilty of not focusing enough on a task […]
    November 25th, 2020

    That great new hire, welcomed with a fanfare, saviour of the team, is leaving. Oh well!

    Despite being repeated a thousand times, hiring processes are still quite imperfect. Of course, there are many places in which […]
    November 24th, 2020

    At some threshold, ‘improvements’ become dangerous

    ‘Continuous improvement’ is part of the management furniture and something that, at face value, one could not disagree with. But […]
    November 23rd, 2020

    Aspiration: the healthy restlessness of the ‘Is there a better way?’

    Complacency is always a risk, more so when we profess to be immune to it. Sometimes, achieving organizational and business […]
    November 21st, 2020

    The many ‘me’ inside Me need some discovery: have a go. They all seem to come for dinner.

    Continuing the conversation on leadership. Yes, we could go forever. Let me make an assumption: that miraculously you’ll have some […]
    November 20th, 2020

    Organizations don’t learn. People do. Sometimes too much. So where does company memory come in?

    The modern organization is fluid. People are not necessarily assigned to one place, one team, even one single role. The […]
    November 19th, 2020

    How to create collaboration. Parachute people in who collaborate a lot

    Collaboration is behavioural, not a process or system. As a behaviour, it can’t be taught. It’s something that some people […]
    November 18th, 2020

    Stop press: The C-suite people and top leadership, major problem revealed

    For CEOs, CFOs, CHROs, and other Cs, and Divisional Ds’, survey after survey try to identify their focus, their concerns, […]
    November 17th, 2020

    Leadership is a social concept, not an individual trait. But we are fascinated by the individual stock.

    Leadership is a term that describes a relationship. No relationship, no leadership. Leadership can only be defined in terms of […]
    November 16th, 2020

    Corporate language needs a transfusion of humanity. It can be done.

    Corporate speak is of course tribal. So, to belong, you have to speak the tribal idiom. Through my work, I […]
    November 14th, 2020

    An enlightened top leadership is sometimes a fantastic alibi for a non-enlightened management to do whatever they want

    Nothing is more rewarding than having a CEO who says world-changing things in the news and who produces bold, enlightened […]
    November 13th, 2020

    Heroic corporate stories build motivation for a future. Routine stories of achievement show that the future is already here.

    Corporate storytelling has been largely dominated by heroic stories, referring to extraordinary circumstances, handled by extraordinary people. They make for […]
    November 12th, 2020

    Talk the walk (Note from the editor: it actually means in that order)

    ‘Walk the talk’ is being consistent: say something and then do what you said you would. ‘Talk the walk’ is […]
    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 26th, 2020

    This best kept, secret jumpstart, will save you months of pain in people, team reorg and alignment

    The following line will short cut months of (building) ‘alignment’, integration, reorganization, team building, coalition building, start-up get-to-know, redeployment of […]
    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 […]
    October 17th, 2020

    Framing is a leadership must (3 of 3): ‘Intention and Outcome’

    My third framing comment, after (1) framing new behaviours, and (2) the framing of the overall narrative of the organization, […]
    October 16th, 2020

    Framing is a leadership must (2 of 3): frame the narrative before it frames you

    Back in June, I said that I would put framing at the top of the list on ‘leadership tasks’. I […]
    October 15th, 2020

    Compelling narrative and truth are, of course, two different things. Leadership must make them inseparable

    Some time ago a picture of a pack of wolves walking in the snow had been circulating on many social […]
    October 14th, 2020

    Trophy employees, their company and its useful idiots

    In any organization there are positive deviants (deviants from expected norms, who achieve results) and other ‘statistical abnormalities’ by nature […]
    October 13th, 2020

    Corporate Botox

    My local DIY/Bricolage/Hardware store has terrible service. But now, by adopting a tradition started by Walmart (a tradition which is […]
    October 12th, 2020

    Sustainable? Competitive advantage or disadvantage?

    There was a time, not long ago, when people got fed up with ‘change programmes’ that faded at the speed […]
    October 10th, 2020

    4 types of generosity in the workplace. 2 with epidemic potential.

    Four types: The generosity of the traffic light. Every fixed interval, it lets you get through. It even changes colour […]
    October 9th, 2020

    You want to seek the company of a few rejected people

    There are many compilations but I found these examples in distractify.com. These are cases of rejection that should make us […]
    October 8th, 2020

    The only change worth changing, is people’s lives. Why are we afraid to say it?

    Business organizations have grown in a traditional alpha male model where emotions are weaknesses, irrationality is banned and ‘the human […]
    October 7th, 2020

    The problem is that all we say is that ‘the problem is’. There is no ‘and’.

    We need to improve communication is not the same as, this is what we need to do to improve communication, […]
    October 6th, 2020

    Trust in 3 models. Trust me, it’s simple.

    There are three major sources of trust generation. Everything else is commentary: The ‘keep promises’. I can rely on you, […]
    October 5th, 2020

    Measurement: the Dogma. Here are 10 critical thinking principles.

    The following are not the same: What you want to measure What you need to measure What you have been […]
    October 3rd, 2020

    The cost of checking. Looking at the number one cause of organizational ineffectiveness.

    If somebody could care to quantify the cost of constantly checking with people whether they are doing what they are […]
    October 2nd, 2020

    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 […]
    October 1st, 2020

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

    There are many ways to introduce, trigger and spread behaviours in organizations, but not many of them are effective and […]
    September 30th, 2020

    Every successful company’s growth contains seeds of failure. At some point, organizational complexity could outweigh the business benefits

    Organizations grow in many ways: organically and quietly, organically and exponentially, by acquisitions or mergers etc. In every step of […]
    September 29th, 2020

    I challenge you with this quiz, when applied to your own organization.

    There are about 200 people in the organization. But 10 of them at the top are very powerful In fact, […]
    September 28th, 2020

    History is constructed. The leader’s legacy is not retrospective. We build it daily, so we’d better test it.

    I previously wrote about company cultures having a glue, The One Global Culture does not exist. But pretending that it […]
    September 26th, 2020

    The One Global Culture does not exist. But pretending that it does holds us together.

    The so-called One Global Culture is a confederation of: (a) Geographical cultures and sub-cultures (Italy, USA, France etc) (b) Functional, […]
    September 25th, 2020

    Casinos don’t have clocks

    Ryan Holiday (media critic, stoicism vendor, marketing strategist) is ‘the bestselling author of Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a […]
    September 24th, 2020

    Jet Skiing Management vs. Scuba Diving Management

    The writer Nicholas Carr said about the influence of the Internet on the way he wrote and, in general, on his […]
    September 23rd, 2020

    May I introduce you to our worst enemy? The word average

    Random thoughts: People content with average achievements in the market, launch a party when the statistics show a few points […]
    September 22nd, 2020

    Do competence-based management and leadership systems create better managers or leaders? (Sorry for the inconvenient question)

    Louis Gerstner, chairman of IBM from 1993 until 2002, recalls in his autobiography, the company’s use of a competence model […]
    September 21st, 2020

    Memo to all corporate supporting functions: You are fired. Reapply now. Lines are open

    Memo to all functions and Business Partners (HR, OD, L&D, Internal/Corporate Communications, Strategy Units, Finance, Health and Safety, Branding/PR, and […]
    September 19th, 2020

    7 Platitudes in Organizational Life, in need of a very loud ‘really?’ Louder! And some debunking.

    We can do much better than this. But we don’t. On the contrary, we exploit these platitudes and repeat them […]
    September 18th, 2020

    Collaborating across borders needs one thing: borders

    There is a romantic view of the organization that sees it completely borderless, inside and outside. Inside, this view says, […]
    September 17th, 2020

    May Change Management have a great funeral

    A good friend, an expert in Communications, has created her new website with a prominent quote of mine, ‘Change Management […]
    September 16th, 2020

    The Ordinary Irrationals

    These are us, you and me. OK, apologies for calling you ordinary. But it’s not disrespectful. Believe me. It’s like […]
    September 15th, 2020

    The 6 stages of management teams. The origin and evolution of these species on one page.

    Stage 1: The Accidental Management team. The team is composed by whoever reports to the top. You are in that […]
    September 14th, 2020

    Good silos, bad silos are like good cholesterol and bad cholesterol

    It could be argued that ‘silos’ are part of the human condition and group interaction, and Chris Rodgers (Informal Coalitions) […]
    September 12th, 2020

    Trust is (mostly) horizontal. Our organizations are (mostly) vertical. No wonder…

    ‘People like me’ is a category in its own right in the Edelman Trust Barometer. Multiple sets of data point […]
    September 11th, 2020

    Your most important list of personal assets. Take time. Now?

    There are many ways to list our own assets. And that’s something that is very healthy to do. Practice it […]
    September 10th, 2020

    Note to Internal Communications people: occupy the (corporate) streets.

    The Communications function in organizations has still today one of the best chances to drive strategic change. To do this, […]
    September 9th, 2020

    ‘Human’ and ‘leadership’ can go together by inviting our demons for dinner.

    If leadership is a praxis, something that ‘I’ do (name and surname here, please), then, knowing a little bit about […]
    September 8th, 2020

    Solidarity as a form of organizational culture is both a soft label and a secret weapon.

    At some people’s request, I am revising an old Daily Thoughts on ‘solidarity’ in the work place. Solidarity is one […]
    September 7th, 2020

    Employee Engagement Surveys: Be careful what you ask for, you might get it.

    There are two opposite and wrong reactions to Employee (engagement/satisfaction) surveys. At one end, there is the ‘ignore the findings’. […]
    September 5th, 2020

    10 reasons why you should retire ‘Passion’ from your value system

    Passion is an emotion, or set of emotions. You may want, indeed, that your people are passionate, but you can’t […]
    September 4th, 2020

    Oh, mental frames! How easy to create misery!

    ‘Let’s be real and aware of the current budget realities’ is a warning that leaders should give to their people […]
    September 3rd, 2020

    Five spaces that the organizational leader needs to design and nurture

    What about the leader as a designer of spaces, a social architect that creates places (physical) and spaces? Not hard […]
    September 2nd, 2020

    Covid-19 time. Behavioural Change: the Bad Ideas Collection (1)

    The England and Wales education authority has publicised a list of behaviours that will not be allowed in the classroom […]
    September 1st, 2020

    ‘The tyranny of the moment’. Liberating Leaders Wanted.

    Thomas Hylland Eriksen is a Norwegian Anthropology professor that has achieved more than any of his fellow anthropologists: you only […]
    August 31st, 2020

    Is employee engagement whatever is measured by employee engagement surveys?

    Engagement, retention even activism…Traditional models of employee engagement are getting a bit tired. They are starting to look the same, […]
    August 29th, 2020

    The shortest Employee Engagement survey has one question

    And the question is: ‘Why are you still here?’ You learn about the organization by asking questions to employees when […]
    August 28th, 2020

    Build your own Employee Engagement argument for free. You can’t go wrong

    Here are three baskets full of concepts: Basket one: Working conditions, Flexibility at work, Pay and perks, Reward and recognition, […]
    August 27th, 2020

    Ad absurdum, but it may work

    A man is walking alongside the road with a bag of rice and throwing rice outside the road. Another man […]
    August 26th, 2020

    An amazing new tool for the new business environment revealed.

    Experiment. Not kidding. Once upon a time ‘experimenting’ was something that only scientists did. Most people would associate the word […]
    August 25th, 2020

    To be a better leader, take a holiday from yourself

    The space of your Self is occupied. By you. This is good news and bad news. On one hand, you […]
    August 24th, 2020

    5 things very successful leaders have in common

    1. They don’t read blogs entitled ‘5 things very successful leaders have in common’. 2. They don’t care about lists […]
    August 21st, 2020

    ‘It looks like a Bell Curve. It must be an HR Performance Appraisal’. Not in this Century. Normal distributions are dead

    Performance appraisal or performance management are one thing. Forced ranking into an artificial normal distribution of people in the organization, […]
    August 19th, 2020

    10 alternative questions on Culture and Engagement.

    This is my alternative to the Gallup 12. You can develop a whole Organizational Development philosophy around these questions. These […]
    August 17th, 2020

    Performance Appraisals: the 5 reasons why it’s so hard to change them or get rid of them

    Only when you see Performance Management as rituals, you can understand why we still do them in the same unchanged […]
    August 15th, 2020

    Organizational culture shaping. Structural changes hardly solve behavioural problems. It’s a trap.

    Structural answers to organizational problems are very unlikely to succeed. Division A people don’t collaborate with Division B people, so […]
    August 14th, 2020

    Do you have a ‘Chaos Monkey’ in your management system? You should.

    Many organizations have a Risk Management function of some sort. Often scattered amongst different constituencies: manufacturing, engineering, R&D etc. It […]
    August 13th, 2020

    All that must be spontaneous, must be engineered

    OK, at least you’re reading. Thanks. The organization is a network. Networks have emergent properties. Translation: things come up from […]
    August 12th, 2020

    Peer-to-peer networks are the strongest force of action

    Peer-to-peer work, transversal, spontaneous or not, collaboration, peer-to-peer influence, peer-to-peer activities of Viral Change™ champions or activists, all of this is […]
    August 11th, 2020

    In-company clicktivism, not an elevated form of engagement

    Clicktivism is a form of digital /online engagement that requires the extraordinary effort of one of your fingers, possibly the […]
    August 10th, 2020

    Management is analogue. Communication is digital. Have two desks.

    A book by ex-Microsoft researcher and now MIT prof Kentaro Toyama (Geek Heresy, 20015) is not precisely novel on the topic of […]
    August 8th, 2020

    Digital Transformation: the new clothes for the enterprise, and something fundamental is missing

    An indepth analysis of the world of ‘Digital Transformation’ shows two things. One is that there is no such thing […]
    August 7th, 2020

    Thinking leadership in terms of legacy. There will be one.

    Big L, small l, legacy is the long term outcome of leadership. There will be legacy. You’re better off shaping […]
    August 6th, 2020

    3 ways to use ‘Digital’ inside the organization. The trouble with wrong expectations.

    Model 1. The technology, for example in the form of digital platforms such as Enterprise Social Networks, ESN (Yammer type) […]
    August 5th, 2020

    In search of 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, […]
    August 4th, 2020

    The Self-Induced Complexity Kingdom (SICK) in organizations looks sometimes like a conspiracy

    We all live and work in bureaucratic organizations. The differences between us is the dose. In today’s world, bureaucracy is […]
    August 3rd, 2020

    Millenials have in common their age. The rest is more about the world we are all in, the meal we have cooked for their dinner.

    At a conference I attended, the very sharp mind of Marten Mickos, CEO of HackerOne, ex HP, ex Nokia, reminded […]
    August 1st, 2020

    How do people change their mind?

    How do people change their mind? How can we influence people to change their minds? Well, any of us will […]
    July 31st, 2020

    Leaders who have little control on things, but who think they have a lot of it, are the ones who fear losing control most.

    Following on from one of the topics discussed during yesterday’s thought-provoking webinar on The Myths of Management – leadership and […]
    July 30th, 2020

    ‘Bottom up’ needs an ally ‘up’. An orphan ‘bottom up’ is just the music with half the band.

    In our world of management, and in terms of understanding how we mobilize people at scale, we are always behind […]
    July 29th, 2020

    3 kinds of people you need to replace; 3 kinds of people you need. Development Plan done.

    Three bad news people: People who sell discontent. They become experts. You may have an entire internal sales force of […]
    July 28th, 2020

    I don’t trust the water to become ice at zero degrees.

      I know it will happen. I’m certain. It’s nothing to do with trust.   Trust requires uncertainty. I trust […]
    July 27th, 2020

    Nine basic contradictions in organizational life. Ignore at your peril.

    Mastering healthy tension between them, or surrendering to an ‘impossible alignment’ is a choice for leaders and managers. The worse […]
    July 25th, 2020

    There is something only you can do: be yourself. Everything else can be outsourced.

    There is something only you can live: your life. Socrates said that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. Being […]
    July 24th, 2020

    The ultimate form of Employee Engagement is a company of volunteers

    I was told, many years ago, by somebody very close to the old Microsoft management, in Bill Gates times, that […]
    July 23rd, 2020

    Managing by thermostat (I want a culture of feed forward, not feedback)

    The Good Mechanics of Continuous Improvement have given us a culture of feedback. Feedback is worshipped. There is a whole […]
    July 22nd, 2020

    ‘Make it work first, then clean it up’ versus ‘Clarify all first, then act’. You Choose!

    Imagine this situation, which I am sure you have never come across. Just kidding. A ‘project’ (not necessarily defined as […]
    July 21st, 2020

    Inquiring, inquisitive and restless minds: positions permanently open in your organization

    If you were to list your most important people assets, above the best set of skills and competences, above the […]
    July 20th, 2020

    What do I do with a resistant manager? Find five non-resistant colleagues, then…

    A CEO asked me recently: what do you do with a manager who does not embrace or support change, in […]
    July 18th, 2020

    360 degree feedback is the great deceiver

    Extracts taken from my book The Flipping Point. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas needs to […]
    July 17th, 2020

    Manage the inevitable, lead the unpredictable, allow yourself to do both

    I’ve written several times about the tired distinction between management and leadership. It had its logic and purpose, and made […]
    July 16th, 2020

    We, ourselves are the biggest exporters of problems in the organizations we work for

    The great Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset wrote about the early 20th Century Spanish society as being ‘led by people who […]
    July 15th, 2020

    Grab the magic thresholds in the organization’s life

    Continuous culture shaping within an organization equals social movement: large scale behavioural and cultural change, for a purpose, powered by […]
    July 14th, 2020

    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 […]
    July 13th, 2020

    15 random organizational irritations and inconvenient truths

    Bottom up is not more (of the same) workshops but at the bottom of the organization. Changing the geography of […]
    July 11th, 2020

    I dread ‘robust’ and ‘sustainable’ cultures

    Culture is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it can host the most beautiful and sophisticated developments, enhance people’s life, […]
    July 10th, 2020

    10 shifts in the Remarkable Organization in the making (wishful ideas)

    I suggest we aim at a package of shifts in organizational life: a 10 point manifesto, the Remarkable Organization Manifesto […]
    July 9th, 2020

    The collective as a bad sum. When collaboration becomes co-recreation and the sum is smaller than the parts.

    In my dealings with organizations of many sizes and shapes, cultures and geographies, I always find very fine individuals of […]
    July 8th, 2020

    Behaviours are the syntax of the organization. Values are the grammar. Your space in the world is the story.

    Your linguistic and behavioural frame must be in sync. Story, values and behaviours need to be solid and well connected. […]
    July 7th, 2020

    From ‘us and them’ to ‘us with them’. Don’t kill the ‘us’ on behalf of a fictitious ‘global’.

    I sometimes think that many global ‘one company’ initiatives are missing the point. The intentions are good: ‘look, we are […]
    July 6th, 2020

    Mondays shape Tuesdays. If you could just fast forward…

    Winston Churchill said, referring to the Houses of Parliament in the UK, ‘We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us’. […]
    July 4th, 2020

    My top 5 Leadership questions at the top of the agenda

    Here are my top five from my organizational consulting work. The paraphrasing is mine, the ownership is shared with my […]
    July 3rd, 2020

    The organization’s collective self belief is often hidden. Leaders need to hear the unsaid.

    Some organizations, or groups inside the organization, suffer from lack of self belief. You could say weak self esteem. The […]
    July 2nd, 2020

    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 the art […]
    July 1st, 2020

    Peer-to-peer is stronger than managerial top down.

    Peer power: if managers say, ‘safety is first’, the impact may be relative. The dictation is totally expected. This is […]
    June 30th, 2020

    The organizational structure vs what is really going on. Or the loneliness of an organizational chart.

    The snap shot of the company as pictured in an organizational chart, is probably one of the most fictitious works […]
    June 29th, 2020

    10 reasons why leaders need to focus on the (unmanaging of the) informal organization

    Our traditional management education has almost 100% focused on the formal organization, the structural fabric of teams, divisions, groups, committees […]
    June 27th, 2020

    Teamocracies and Networkracies have different citizens: inhabitants in teamwork, riders in network.

    The old view of the organization is something close to the old concept of a medieval city, where citizenship was […]
    June 26th, 2020

    The obvious but overlooked fact that connectivity and collaboration are not always good.

    Increasing the connectivity of people, who will benefit from enhanced collaboration, to achieve good things better, faster, differently, is a […]
    June 24th, 2020

    Individualism and collaboration are contagious. This is not news, but some experiments may explain how

    In an experiment by Nicholas Christakis‘ team they tested the power of Artificial intelligence (AI) led bots (read pieces of […]
    June 23rd, 2020

    Why have we sterilized management? 

    We have made character, virtue or goodness uncomfortable terms in the organization. They seem to provoke some sort of red […]
    June 22nd, 2020

    An audience is not a community. A community is not a team

    Audiences receive messages, whether at your Town Hall meeting or your keynote speech. Communities use what they have ‘in common’ […]
    June 20th, 2020

    ‘I told them once; they didn’t understand. I told them twice; they didn’t understand. I told them three times … and I understood’

    I don’t know where this quote comes from, but I have always seen it as a source of reflection on […]
    June 19th, 2020

    Scientism is taking over management, so garbage gets measured and saved in pie charts.

    Scientism is taking over management, so anything that can be expressed in scores and numbers is glorified regardless of the […]
    June 18th, 2020

    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 the […]
    June 17th, 2020

    Change management theories have only interpreted the organizational world. The point, however, is to actually change it.

    Since we all love conceptual frames, it is not surprising that in the area of ‘change management’ there are a […]
    June 16th, 2020

    Individual change does not precede social change.

    By all means, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ (by the way, Gandhi never said that), […]
    June 15th, 2020

    The tragedy of corporate shallowness. A call to wake up

    These are the symptoms. Indicators, red flags, culture makers. If you have more than 5, you are in trouble. 6 […]
    June 13th, 2020

    ‘What if the problem is me?’ An uncomfortable, key question for leaders

    Reflective leadership has gone into progressive short supply. In an era where prescriptive answers seem to dominate reflective ones, it […]
    June 12th, 2020

    No more change please, we need change-ability.

    ‘Lasting capacity’ must be a keyword for change management and its methods. The issue today is less about how to […]
    June 11th, 2020

    Social media is a colossal echo chamber where all cognitive processes are surrendered to one single driver: confirmation bias.

    Extracts taken from my new book The Flipping Point. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas […]
    June 10th, 2020

    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, […]
    June 9th, 2020

    8 hard arguments on culture for people who think this is fluffy, woolly, soft stuff

    Culture is the difference between 30 people making a decision in 30 days, and 3 people making the same decision […]
    June 8th, 2020

    Change is social, doing it together, a praxis.

    Extracts taken from my new book The Flipping Point. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas […]
    June 5th, 2020

    Framing is a leadership must (1 of 3): your mini-revolution starts with simple behaviours.

    I put framing at the top of the list on ‘leadership tasks’. One of those non-rocket sciences around us that […]
    June 4th, 2020

    3 self-sabotage mechanisms in organizations

    Organizations, like organisms, have embedded mechanisms of survival, of growth and also of self-sabotage These are 3 self-sabotage systems to […]
    June 3rd, 2020

    Non-magic: what is the latest intelligence and new data? Magic: what’s the story?

    Extracts taken from my new book The Flipping Point. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas […]
    June 2nd, 2020

    Getting things done: ‘Relationships’ vs. ‘Structures’

    A while ago, a telecom client complained to me about his particular division which seemed to work entirely ‘on relationships’. […]
    June 1st, 2020

    When managing an organization’s internal complexity, is a greater problem than managing the complexity of the environment.

    Extracts taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas needs […]
    May 29th, 2020

    In the organization, (behavioural) change is social. Or it isn’t.

    Extracts taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas needs […]
    May 28th, 2020

    ‘Culture’ is a messy overstuffed supermarket. Behaviours create cultures. The rest is scaffolding.

    Our concept of organizational culture as a receptacle for values, beliefs, attitudes, mindsets, ways of doing, written rules, unwritten rules, […]
    May 27th, 2020

    Top leadership role modelling is overrated.

    Extracts taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas needs […]
    May 26th, 2020

    Forget robust and forget the tanks. It’s guerrilla and it’s gazelle/cheetah/falcon in the project team.

    Renounce adaptation, robustness and even ‘flexibility’ in favour of ‘taking any opportunity to do things you think you could not […]
    May 25th, 2020

    We want the organizational flexibility of Lego. We recruit for the rigidity of a jigsaw

    Extracts taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas needs […]
    May 23rd, 2020

    If you are not in crisis, reboot. Declare inflection points. That’s readiness.

    Some leaders are very good in a crisis. They may or may not acknowledge that, but the adrenaline of the […]
    May 22nd, 2020

    Behaviours create culture, not the other way around.

    Extract taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas […]
    May 21st, 2020

    What if engaging employees were simply morally right? 

    Extract taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas […]
    May 20th, 2020

    The Saint Francis School of Management – ‘when necessary use words’.

    Extracts taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas needs […]
    May 19th, 2020

    Demonising hierarchy is easy and politically correct but not terribly efficient.

    Extracts taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas needs […]
    May 18th, 2020

    Stop announcing change. Change. Then announce that it’s happening.

    Extracts taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas needs […]
    May 16th, 2020

    There is only one strategy test: what will you tell the children?

    Extracts taken from my new book ‘The Flipping Point‘. A flipping point in the trend for adopting absurd management ideas needs […]
    May 15th, 2020

    The real readiness trick is behavioural. The rest is commentary.

    The Four readiness drivers I have mentioned in previous posts are: Rapid Reaction and Reconfiguration (RRR) Focus on your ‘social […]
    May 14th, 2020

    The slack advantage: ‘The minute the future becomes unpredictable, efficiency can become your enemy’.

    An interview with Adam Pisoni, American entrepreneur and previously, co-founder of CTO and Yammer, brings back to my table the […]
    May 13th, 2020

    Readiness is the new capability (just don’t ask what for) and it has four drivers.

    The word ‘ready’ has at least 4 meanings in any dictionary: 1. Prepared or available for service, action, or progress. […]
    May 12th, 2020

    “You never let a crisis go to waste”.

    This is the famous quote by Rahm Emanuel, who was mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019, and before that […]
    May 8th, 2020

    The company that gets better and better after disruption, disorder or chaos.

    Nassim Taleb Antifragile concept is perhaps one of the most attractive frames (conceptual, philosophical, practical) we have had recently. By […]
    May 7th, 2020

    If you need to parachute in help, send builders, not problem solvers

    Parachuting in help is daily life in the leadership of organizations. It may take the form of sending leaders from […]
    May 6th, 2020

    I want companies with Post Traumatic Strength Disorder. Untreated.

    Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile book has this subtitle: ‘Things that gain from disorder’. This is a model for the new organization […]
    April 22nd, 2020

    Going back to normal, when normal is not waiting for us

    [1] When on the road going back to normal, with catching up in mind, as if trying to find the […]
    April 14th, 2020

    Where is Superman now?

    I miss the sight of the very important people, the super-men and super-women of the British Airways business lounge in […]
    April 9th, 2020

    The arithmetic of suffering is flawed. Leave the tape measure at the door.

    I don’t know about you, but I have used the expression ‘in the grand scheme of things’ many times in […]
    March 19th, 2020

    COVID-19: From coping and adapting, to making things extraordinarily better. And surprising ourselves.

    Nassim Taleb has written about ‘antifragile’ as the quality of ‘growing from disorder’. He says that the opposite to fragile […]
    March 16th, 2020

    So, what do you do Joe?

    Spot the difference at the dinner party or barbeque. So, what do you do Joe? [You must start with ‘so’ […]
    March 14th, 2020

    Not even wrong

    Consistently attributed to physicist Wolfgang Pauli, who had no time for sloppy thinking, ‘not even wrong’ has become a category […]
    March 13th, 2020

    Gene and Tony are coming next week

    If you work in a corporation with headquarters and affiliates, scattered in many places, or with international sites, you will […]
    March 12th, 2020

    Gandhi’s concept of Western Civilization

    Interrogated by a journalist: ‘Mr Gandhi, what do you think of Western civilization?’, Mr Gandhi answered:  ‘I think that it […]
    March 11th, 2020

    Initiative fatigue, leading to exhaustion, leading to switching off

    Many organizations seem to run layers of parallel initiatives, all directed at noble goals, and in many cases, without talking […]
    March 10th, 2020

    Occupy the (corporate) streets

    The traditional thinking about divisional and functional structures within organizations, which were born of the need for specialization and a […]
    March 9th, 2020

    A bit of inefficiency is very efficient

    Cost cutting, cutting to the bone, cutting resources down to the bare minimum is praised as efficient. But it’s not. […]
    March 7th, 2020

    There is only one customer, and he pays the bills

    I am your customer, you are my customer. When I need to provide you with something, you are my customer. […]
    March 6th, 2020

    ‘It’s our policy’ is often the worst policy

    A while ago, my brand new iPhone was stolen at the airport, having left it behind on a table for […]
    March 5th, 2020

    ‘Where there is too much vision, people perish faster’.

    “Where there is no vision, the people perish”, says the Book of Proverbs in the Bible. This quote comes in […]
    March 4th, 2020

    Three ways to get approval from your CEO or your Leadership Team

    Way number 1: My team has come up with these three options, A, B and C. Which one do you […]
    March 3rd, 2020

    We will ‘360 degree feedback’ you

    Readers of my books and clients will be aware that I am not very fond of 360 degree feedback used […]
    March 2nd, 2020

    In praise of tension. Consensus as a permanent state in the organization, is a collective coma

    The trouble with consensus is that it contains all the risks of poor thinking and all the possible cognitive biases, […]
    February 29th, 2020

    If you marry a summary, you’ll breed bullet points. Life becomes much easier, if hardly real.

    ‘The exercise was very rich, everybody participated deeply, the walls were full of flipcharts with stuff. So many ideas floating […]
    February 28th, 2020

    Heroes on the payroll: the good news and the bad news

    Some people have a hero within. They have this tremendous ability to mobilise energy, jump in when big issues present, […]
    February 27th, 2020

    Segment, segment, segment. Add these three words to the dictionary of Internal Communications.

    If you look at political marketing, and the place to look for a serious PhD in communications and their segmentation […]
    February 26th, 2020

    Madam, the ribbon is free.

    Discovering’ an old article that I wrote years ago, when I used to have a management column in a monthly […]
    February 25th, 2020

    ‘Democratic organization’ means well, but it is an unfortunate term.

    With the best of intentions, to call an organization a Democracy is an abuse of the term, unless of course, […]
    February 24th, 2020

    Reclaiming a concept that has lost weight in the business organization: vocation

    Vocation is often defined as ‘a strong feeling’ to do something, a job, a career, an occupation, to dedicate one’s […]
    February 22nd, 2020

    The Twentypercenters

    It is said that in any organization, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. I often think that […]
    February 21st, 2020

    “A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.”

    Chinese proverb that is, what else? I wish we could be as crystal clear when it comes to the characteristics […]
    February 20th, 2020

    Some working places are ‘non-places’, and as inspiring as Clinical Isolation Units

    Working in a ‘non-place place’ can’t deliver inspirations and aspirations. Ideas need infections, not Clinical Isolation Units. Marc Auge is […]
    February 19th, 2020

    Games or Rituals? Anthropology inside the company has valuable things to say

    Organizational anthropology sounds like a grandiose academic affair. You may imagine the anthropologists armed with notebooks and cameras capturing the […]
    February 18th, 2020

    Science advances by a series of funerals. And some management practices are not feeling very well

    ‘Science advances by a series of funerals’. This is how John Brockman, founder of The Edge, and editor of a […]
    February 17th, 2020

    Navel-gazing (Nombrilisme in French, sounds much better) is constant in the organization. The issue is not to deny it, but to fight it.

    There is so much to fix and manage inside the organization that the task could be never ending. Soon, and […]
    February 15th, 2020

    ‘Change management’ the forgotten statement: this will not change

    ‘Change management’ usually forgets a vital component: the things that don’t change or need to change, or, indeed, must not […]
    February 14th, 2020

    The Tragedy of the Obvious (part 2). The obvious things in the ‘management of change’ (and still we can’t see the donkeys)

    I shared yesterday the tragedy of the obvious. The obvious that is so obvious that we don’t see it. Read […]
    February 13th, 2020

    The Tragedy of the Obvious

    A man was leading a caravan of donkeys and crossing the border almost every day, coming back with apparently the […]
    February 12th, 2020

    Empowerment is an output. If you can visualize it, you can craft it.

    Employee empowerment is an output, an outcome. If you start thinking of employee empowerment as an input, something you are […]
    February 10th, 2020

    Stuck is the worst status. Worse than being wrong.

    You are stuck when confronted with dilemmas. Maybe contradictory business decisions, or maybe the need to choose between two evils. […]
    February 8th, 2020

    Not all high caffeine shots of motivation work well. Inspirational stories have pros and cons

    Business loves inspirational stories. The world of entrepreneurship and leadership constantly draw on stories. Many people love sports analogies. Some […]
    February 7th, 2020

    We, ourselves are the biggest exporters of problems in the organizations we work for

    The great Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset wrote about the early 20th Century Spanish society as being ‘led by […]
    February 6th, 2020

    Don’t transplant or import a successful management model; reverse engineer it, then pause

    There is a big difference between copying and reverse engineering. Many people in business wish they could copy the great […]
    February 5th, 2020

    Tribal brands that teach us a lesson

    This is an anthropology report. We’ve found this tribe: the people all wear the same multi-coloured clothes. They paint their […]
    February 4th, 2020

    Defining ourselves by what we are against, does not advance the cause of the for

    I have always been a bit wary of people who repeatedly define themselves by what they are against. It makes […]
    February 3rd, 2020

    Lead in Poetry, manage in Prose

    I am of course paraphrasing Mario Cuomo’s ‘You campaign in poetry; you govern in prose’. Cuomo (1932-2015) was an American […]
    January 31st, 2020

    On the day the UK leaves the European Union

    Friends, my heart is broken today. The UK is leaving the European Union tonight at 11:00 pm continental time. Many […]
    January 30th, 2020

    The organization’s collective self-belief is often hidden. Leaders need to hear the unsaid.

    Some organisations, or groups inside the organisation, suffer from lack of self belief. You could say weak self esteem. The […]
    January 29th, 2020

    My Stockholm (airport) Syndrome

    Arriving at the clean and clinical Stockholm airport, my pre-booked taxi is failing me. I have some time to spare […]
    January 28th, 2020

    The ‘who-does-what’ and the ‘who-knows-what’ models of the organization, lead to different worlds.

    If you had to build an organization from scratch, or re-design one, you would have options about some models to […]
    January 27th, 2020

    Let’s elevate the confusion to a higher level

    There are times when you get stuck in arguments.  Discussions seem to go nowhere. You are running in circles and […]
    January 25th, 2020

    Create inflection points when you don’t need one. It’s better than waiting for the inflection points to come to you.

    Crisis are/constitute inflection points. Also M&A, extraordinary organic growth, relocations, and entering new markets. Keep adding. Pain is inevitable, misery […]
    January 24th, 2020

    Stay in beta

    The traditional organization is, amongst other things, obsessed with closure.  It despises ambiguity and puts a premium on the absolute […]
    January 23rd, 2020

    Organizational Decluttering: A crusade in waiting that may need you as leader

    Einstein said, “I soon learned to scent out what was able to lead to fundamentals and to turn aside from […]
    January 22nd, 2020

    I want companies with Post Traumatic Strength Disorder. Untreated.

    Nasim Taleb’s Antifragile book has this subtitle: ‘Things that gain from disorder’. This is a model for the new organization […]
    January 21st, 2020

    Disruptive innovation, like charity, starts at home. Your mind and your people, that is. The rest is the easy part.

    The concept of disruption in management has been applied to innovation before. A disruptive innovation is a technology, process or […]
    January 20th, 2020

    Darling, what are your expectations today? Or why do we talk Martian in business?

    There is a ‘meeting expectations’ cult in business. It has created its own concept of (customer) services: meet customer expectations, […]
    January 18th, 2020

    Too-too land is a prison and too-too managers are its guards. This is what life there looks like.

    The company is too big to change. We are too small to compete. It’s too early for a Leadership Development. […]
    January 17th, 2020

    Permission to be human

    One aspect of my work with organizations that I truly enjoy is to help craft the ‘Behavioural DNA’ that shapes […]
    January 16th, 2020

    Biography of a Flipchart

    A meeting room without a flipchart is decaffeinated coffee. The absence of a flipchart insinuates possibly lots of talking, perhaps […]
    January 15th, 2020

    Surprise!

    Surprise is a powerful strategy in its own right. Surprise means being ahead of the game, being further ahead than […]
    January 14th, 2020

    Leaders as architects: how to build the house, page one

    The closest thing to designing and building an organization is the designing and building a house. You can build a […]
    January 13th, 2020

    Alibi to keep the status quo: ‘We are a regulated industry’

    Amongst my clients I have a good representation of ‘regulated industries’ such as pharmaceuticals and financial services. I, myself, spent […]
    January 11th, 2020

    Your mind may trick you, the truth will set you free

    You have bought a pair of very expensive tickets for a classical music concert but the traffic is horrible and […]
    January 10th, 2020

    Stickiness: the highest, inconvenient management challenge

    Managers are good at messaging and communicating. OK, this is a benevolent assessment but let’s assume this. Also, OK at […]
    January 9th, 2020

    ‘When the sea was calm, all boats alike; showed mastership in floating’

    This is scene one of ‘The Tragedy of Coriolanus’ by William Shakespeare. It says a lot to us. It’s easy […]
    January 8th, 2020

    When the only thing you have is a hammer

    ‘When the only thing you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail’ If you have a predetermined view […]
    January 7th, 2020

    Take over a grey area, adopt an orphan project, sponsor an idea in exile

    The Business English language (yes, there is one) uses the word ‘accountability’ often associated to the word ‘taking’, as in […]
    January 6th, 2020

    Single track thinking, the road to a sure end (if you don’t care whether it’s the right end or the wrong end)

    Continuing with thoughts on critical thinking…. ‘Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then […]
    January 4th, 2020

    ‘Memorable’ is beautiful. ‘Exceeding expectations’ is sad, tired, and as charismatic as a dead fish

    Meeting expectations, exceeding expectations and all that jazz! It’s often said that success equals performance minus expectations. Three comments on […]
    January 3rd, 2020

    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 […]
    January 2nd, 2020

    Five ‘structures’ in search of a corporate space. Leaders, this is your homework

    These are ‘functions’ and ‘structures’ in need of spaces in the organization. You may not be brave enough, or crazy […]
    December 30th, 2019

    The market for Second Hand Thoughts is flourishing, never been so huge. But outsourcing your mind is the ultimate laziness.

    Many of us spend quite a lot of our time in what we call ‘work’. The business day now has […]
    December 27th, 2019

    What psychoanalysis taught me about root causes: the comfort of finding them is not matched by the quality of their truth

    The degree of comfort in discovering the roots of things, cannot be taken as proof of the truth. The best […]
    December 24th, 2019

    Karaoke Management Consulting

    Is this what people want? Singing along with what the Big Gurus have provided? Music and lyrics? Sometimes I feel […]
    December 23rd, 2019

    Seeking unpredictable answers

    We spend too much time seeking predictable answers. They are not necessarily bad. If I work with Peter, Paul and […]
    December 21st, 2019

    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 […]
    December 20th, 2019

    Benchmarking as a health hazard. Cause of managers severe neck pain confirmed

    Benchmarking is a rear-mirror strategy. It’s about catching up with something that has already happened. People who spend too much […]
    December 19th, 2019

    The hour of Radical Management Thinking. The lines are open.

    The hour has come. Radical is the word. From the Latin, radix, it means root. We need to get to […]
    December 18th, 2019

    Critical Thinking self-test. A 10 point health check for your organization, and yourself

    If any of these are a good picture of your organization, you need to put ‘critical thinking’ into the water […]
    December 17th, 2019

    Decision Analysis and the relentless need to seek, bring and assess options. However…

    Many years ago, I got into Decision Analysis at the hands of my good friend Larry Philips of the London […]
    December 16th, 2019

    The un-reachable workforce. What NGOs with remote operations teach us about organising work

    Many years ago, I learnt from the UNHCR, the UN refugee Agency based in Denmark, that many global NGOs of […]
    December 14th, 2019

    DADYC? (Do Acronyms Drive You Crazy?)

    Management cultures, particularly Anglo Saxon, love acronyms. This is something new employees need to learn. If coming from another industry, […]
    December 13th, 2019

    The formula about what to do when ‘leadership does not get it’, finally revealed.

    There are always people who ‘don’t get it’, are against cultural change efforts, do not support a programme, torpedo it, […]
    December 12th, 2019

    The ‘Great Man’ model of leadership is well and alive, despite largely exaggerated accounts of its death

    The Great Man Theory was born in Scotland, the child of philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle (1795 –1881) – “The […]
    December 11th, 2019

    Speed or quality; critical thinking or fast decisions: the OR is today unaffordable.

    Back in 1994, Jim Collins, consultant and author, gained a lot of attention with his book Built To Last: Successful […]
    December 10th, 2019

    The usefulness of the useless

    Nuccio Ordine, an Italian professor, has written an essay of this title, to my knowledge not translated into English. It […]
    December 9th, 2019

    The ‘Keep Moving’ strategy always wins.

    A while ago, I was told an anecdote about an MBA student who returned to their alma mater for a […]
    December 7th, 2019

    10 ingredients to cook your strategy

    List your competitors, then, compare yourself with a different list. Most of the answers lie outside your immediate peer circle. […]
    December 6th, 2019

    10 strategic options

    These are the 10 strategic options you have at your disposal all the time, as I use them with my […]
    December 5th, 2019

    Status Unfinished: the perfect state of a healthy organization is beta

    The perfect state of a healthy organization is unfinished. Like a human being. ‘Born too early’ (Campbell’s hero). Finished structures […]
    December 4th, 2019

    It’s official: the single, magic bullet, that characterises good leadership is to back off

    It should not surprise us that people are constantly looking for the magic bullet of leadership. What makes a good […]
    December 3rd, 2019

    Leadership’s Splendid Expeditions

    “The history of mankind might be described by a cynic as a series of splendid expeditions towards the wrong goal […]
    December 2nd, 2019

    “You don’t have to attend every argument to which you are invited”

    This quote is from an unknown author. He or she must have known a thing or two about the futility […]
    November 30th, 2019

    Collective Leadership: Two Acid Tests

    I call Collective Leadership that state in the evolution of management teams or leadership teams when the power of the […]
    November 29th, 2019

    The death of the charismatic leadership has been grossly exaggerated

    As Mark Twain said himself, ‘The death of the charismatic leader has been grossly exaggerated’. The problem is that ‘charisma’ […]
    November 28th, 2019

    Could the ‘global teenager’ teach us about ‘global leadership’?

    Today, there are more similarities between a teenager in Shanghai and a teenager in Rome, or Singapore and Madrid, or […]
    November 27th, 2019

    Scale or not to scale? This is the Shakespearean culture question.

    Behavioural /cultural shaping in organizations does not scale up by simply the leaders having the right mindset and motivation. A […]
    November 26th, 2019

    All inclusive or go where the energy is?

    Many times in my consulting work, I find myself facing this dilemma. Do I involve many people on the client’s […]
    November 25th, 2019

    Management ‘post-hoc fallacies’, but damn good stories!

    In Latin ‘Post hoc ergo propter hoc’. Free translation: B follows A, so A must be the cause of B. […]
    November 23rd, 2019

    Steal ideas, implant with caution, observe, tweak, observe again, never close your eyes.

    Innovation and renewal requires your windows open to the world. Plenty of organizations out there are experimenting with models, far […]
    November 22nd, 2019

    What do these have in common? Designing organizations, aquariums and fish soup.

    Commenting on the communist legacy, a soviet academic Oleg Bogomolov, who must have known a thing or two about things […]
    November 21st, 2019

    When the organization goes into permanent rehearsal mode, learns to rehearse, not to perform.

    We spend more time on preparing for doing than in doing. That would be good if we were just talking […]
    November 20th, 2019

    HR competence systems need two things: a diet, and a dose of honesty

    Medium and big organizations tend to use a competence system that segments people by grades and by degree of competence. […]
    November 19th, 2019

    I am in favour of consultants entering the temple of the Social Sciences provided they take off their shoes

    I am paraphrasing British philosopher Simon Blackburn who said the same about scientists entering the temple of philosophy. There is […]
    November 18th, 2019

    The corrosion of logic: from ‘why-what-how’, to ‘how, what, maybe why’.

    There was a time when the logic of things started with a ‘why’, followed with a ‘what’ and ended in […]
    November 16th, 2019

    The great ‘How to’ takeover

    There is a period in child development when children start asking the question ’why?’. They usually seem unsatisfied with one […]
    November 15th, 2019

    ‘To save everything, click here’, and its version inside the company

    Clicktivism is the term used to describe the type of pseudo-activism that consists in clicking the ‘Like’ button (Facebook mainly) […]
    November 14th, 2019

    What is the point? Probably the best answer is when ‘there isn’t any’.

    Back in June 2016, people could walk over floating piers on Lake Iseo (Italy), all covered with yellow material, one […]
    November 13th, 2019

    Dear Business Development candidate: tell me about the things you have developed in life

    If you have a behaviour/value system and you want to recruit people in a way that this value system is […]
    November 12th, 2019

    The battle for the 3Ss : Synthesis, Sense, and Simplicity

    Let me share with you my 3Ss, where I suggest you put your money: 1. Synthesis. My followers, readers, clients, […]
    November 11th, 2019

    The new units of Space and Time (and the latest up coming Disruptive Innovations)

    New units: Certificate of existence = 280 characters (Twitter) Presentation of ideas, maximum attention span = 18 mins (TED) Digital […]
    November 9th, 2019

    To stop doing some things is a great source of added value. Try it!

    One of the very frequent questions that I ask my clients is what they can stop doing so that they […]
    November 8th, 2019

    Business discovers the ‘social movement’ language. I hope we don’t corporatize it.

    A social movement is not a bunch of people, even hundreds, or thousands, moving socially. A social movement needs a […]
    November 7th, 2019

    Leadership in organizations is about mobilizing people. The leader is a ‘Social Arsonist’

    “A good organizer is a social arsonist who goes around setting people on fire.”—Fred Ross Fred Ross (1910-1992) American community […]
    November 6th, 2019

    ‘What you said was so confused that one could not tell whether it was nonsense or not’.

    This phrase is attributed to the physicist Wolfgang Pauli, who also described some arguments or theories as so bad that […]
    November 5th, 2019

    The ‘Abandon Hope’ organization

    Some organizations are little versions of Dante’s Inferno with its sign ‘Abandon hope all ye who enter here’ at the […]
    November 4th, 2019

    The Process and The Outcome: married, just friends, or it’s complicated?

    So you have The Process and The Outcome dating. You would have thought that they are having a good time. […]
    November 2nd, 2019

    Trust is tribal, it’s ‘people like me’, it’s horizontal

    Consistently over the years, the Edelman’s Trust Barometer has told us that the greatest source of trust inside the organization […]
    November 1st, 2019

    Compatible dreams + the non-negotiable = the journey (AKA the company)

    In a massive street demonstration for Anti Something Big, you have the Anti Something Big activists, the Anti Everything, the […]
    October 31st, 2019

    ‘You make sense’, is the greatest compliment in the era of non-sense-making

    I explained to a client the logic and principles of the Viral Change™ Platform. I did not want to sell […]
    October 30th, 2019

    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 […]
    October 29th, 2019

    Give me good practice and I will create a good theory to explain it. Even a good philosophy and a disruptive worldview

    Modern and not so modern ‘social movements’ with or a without business propositions are portrayed as a concerted and positioned […]
    October 28th, 2019

    Three models of change

    Change management, or management of change. Thank God there can only be two permutations, because they are the most over-used […]
    October 26th, 2019

    ‘The limits of my language are the limits of my world’

    Said Wittgenstein. Language in business and organizations creates frames, but also limitations. And we have lots of these frames. ‘Employee […]
    October 25th, 2019

    We work with them very closely, we are very familiar with each other, that is why perhaps we don’t know each other well

    Months ago, I found myself in front of a large audience composed of the highest ranks of the HR function […]
    October 24th, 2019

    3 Inconvenient truths about leadership and change

    (1) If the top leadership of the company doesn’t exhibit the values/behaviours that you want to instill in the culture, […]
    October 23rd, 2019

    The LinkedIn half-paradox is connecting with people already connected with you. But the strength of connectivity lies in a ‘Weak Link In’, not in a ‘Strong Link In’.

    Is LinkedIn a Digital Rolodex? A digital Resume/CV Library? Do you connect with people who have already given you the […]
    October 22nd, 2019

    The self-management train has left the station. The journey is very bumpy. Arrivals TBD. Watch out for updates

    The historical existence of several layers of management in any organization may be related to its size. In a command […]
    October 21st, 2019

    When management is overweight, leadership may be starving

    I must confess I have never been 100% comfortable with the traditional distinction by Warren Bennis between leaders and managers […]
    October 19th, 2019

    Saturday poem for leaders who don’t read poems

    There is an ‘Accidental Literature for Leaders’.  I call this my compilation of poems or pieces of narrative that are […]
    October 18th, 2019

    10 Rules of Self-Survival: The Border Diet

    Try my Border Diet: A diet to protect yourself against persistent Full Disclosure that the digital world forces upon you. […]
    October 17th, 2019

    No milk, no honey, enjoy the journey

    Moses’ leadership was bad. He promised his people a land of milk and honey. Instead, they got a terrible hike […]
    October 16th, 2019

    His greatest success was not to fail

    Many people, many of them in high managerial positions, succeed by avoiding failure. They become unmemorable by design. A new […]
    October 15th, 2019

    My ROI, your ROI

    One of the biggest compliments I’ve received in my consulting life, and one that I have come to appreciate more […]
    October 14th, 2019

    Preserving the problem when dedicated to finding the solution.

    It’s called the Shirky principle, after Clay Shirky, prolific American author of bestsellers such as ‘Here comes everybody’(2008)  and ‘Cognitive […]
    October 12th, 2019

    Two wrong Talent Wars

    The war on talent. McKinsey consultants started it with a book of the same title. By focusing on what seemed […]
    October 11th, 2019

    We are all traders of comfort, no matter the degree of uncertainty in our worlds

    A specialist nephrologist I know well says to me: I get very nervous with all this heart stuff, I don’t […]
    October 10th, 2019

    The only common feature that successful companies share, is that they are not failing.

    Management Theory (if there is one) and management practice are not physics. We don’t have very solid data about what […]
    October 9th, 2019

    Looking at a screen is ‘the new normal’.

    There was this big conference that was introduced by the chairman in this way: ‘Welcome everybody. Lovely to have you […]
    October 8th, 2019

    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. […]
    October 7th, 2019

    Beware of the assumed magic properties of the word ‘Prioritize!’

    ‘Prioritize’ is a word that I particularly dislike because it is overused and  misused in a terrible way. I have […]
    October 5th, 2019

    My Russian Dolls theory of the organization

    No system can be fully understood within the system. No, this is not an esoteric statement but a simple, common […]
    October 4th, 2019

    The broken windows of the organization

    A neighbourhood with broken windows and graffiti on the walls says: look how easy it is to break a window […]
    October 3rd, 2019

    I want to import this ‘act of kindness’ into business life

    I know of a brilliant medical doctor who, in front of a worried patient, perhaps with some imaginary worries, perhaps […]
    October 2nd, 2019

    Reclaiming Conversations in an Alone Together world

    In a study conducted with Fortune 100 companies, and quoted in Sherry Turkle’s book ‘Reclaiming Conversations’, the following statistics about […]
    October 1st, 2019

    ‘A man can put up with almost any how if he has a why’

    That was Nietzsche on change management! It goes to the core of the issue of how we all try to […]
    September 30th, 2019

    No revolutions here, we are corporate. Is corporate life shielded in the Era of the Unpredictable?

    Here we go. I’m sounding a little gloomy for a Monday morning. I don’t mean to. Promise. Back in 2016 […]
    September 28th, 2019

    Full-blown Disruptive Innovation is not the Holy Grail for any business. But injections of Disruptive and Critical Thinking could be life saving.

    It is unrealistic to expect upside down disruptive innovation in any business. But the absence of disruptive thinking may be […]
    September 27th, 2019

    Don’t go to Abilene. Nobody wants to.

    Jerry B Harvey’s 1974 article “The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement’, contains this vignette. On a hot afternoon visiting […]
    September 26th, 2019

    Corporate culture? Start with subcultures, find the tribes, and look for the unwritten rules of their dynamics.

    With some exceptions, there is no such a thing as single, global, monolithic corporate culture. There is usually a confederation […]
    September 25th, 2019

    The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Killers (in the organization)

    1. Postpone. Some great killers postpone everything. They don’t even have to use the language, they simply organise things in […]
    September 24th, 2019

    Faster horses

    Henry Ford said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” ‘Faster horses strategies’ […]
    September 24th, 2019

    For leadership, look around, not in research papers

    Leadership has traditional sources of learning, reflection, role modelling and a ‘body of knowledge’. There are four that dominate. This […]
    September 23rd, 2019

    A 6th Century Leadership Manual starts with the word ‘Listen!’

    It’s impossible to listen in a noisy room.  If you want to listen to your breathing, you need silence. You […]
    September 21st, 2019

    Emotional Ignorance needs a book

    Emotional Intelligence was a paragraph-length concept expressed in a library of publications. At the time it was a shock in […]
    September 20th, 2019

    The things you do not have to say make you rich

    William Stafford’s (1914 – 1993) poem reads: The things you do not have to say make you rich, Saying the […]
    September 19th, 2019

    Write a script, not a strategic plan

    ‘A year from now, you are all here standing in front of the CEO and you say: we screwed up! […]
    September 18th, 2019

    The good, the bad and the ugly of ‘Powerful Oversimplifications’

    Powerful oversimplifications’ was the term used by Bruce Henderson, founder of the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to define the matrixes, […]
    September 17th, 2019

    10 reasons why leaders need to focus on the (un-managing of the) informal organization

    Our traditional management education has almost 100% focused on the formal organization, the structural fabric of teams, divisions, groups, committees […]
    September 16th, 2019

    ‘Social Change’ is no longer alien to Executive and Leadership Development. These are social and ‘at scale’ or are not fit for this century.

    Communicating, triggering behaviours, sustaining them and creating a culture, are all connected, interdependent, overlapping and parts of the chain of […]
    September 14th, 2019

    The missing word in the famous Margaret Mead quote

    “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that […]
    September 13th, 2019

    A 3 point leadership strategy for your transformation, small t, big T.

    In caricature, this is a 3 point strategy to develop further. It’s a simple mental and practical frame. Build an […]
    September 12th, 2019

    An alternative competence system for an alternative HR. Ignore at your peril.

    10 key behavioural competences of people to understand what is going on. Small sample of my collection. These are 10 […]
    September 11th, 2019

    Possibly the most important tribe in the organization is The Brokers.

    Each large or not that large organization needs one. This tribe is composed of people who have a natural ability […]
    September 10th, 2019

    Reacting on the spot, and responding in agility mode can be engineered and role-modelled.

    Organizations need a Rapid Reaction Force. OK, unless you are in the military, it does not mean military fatigue uniforms […]
    September 9th, 2019

    ‘Forget what they say, observe what they do’. The ‘uniqueness paradox’ revisited. A bit.

    Some people in organizations believe that they are working in a very bureaucratic, hierarchical, political and rigid environment. Many of […]
    September 7th, 2019

    Joining a cause’, vs. ‘being employed’. Can you articulate the reason for your enterprise?

    From time to time you see the occasional and mostly not very solid comparisons between ‘the company’ and a religion. […]
    September 6th, 2019

    Leadership dialects: you are supposed to join a party, but don’t get an invitation

    The language of leadership is often plain and monotone. Used to explain slides and with a screen behind, leadership language […]
    September 5th, 2019

    ‘Sceptical people and enemies of change need to be sidelined’. Really?

    We all have our share of ‘difficult people’. Conventional management of change has taught us that there is always going […]
    September 4th, 2019

    To Scale or not to scale? This is the Shakespearean culture question.

    Behavioural /cultural shaping in organizations does not scale up by simply the leaders having the right mindset and motivation. A […]
    September 3rd, 2019

    There is nothing I can do’ must be fought before it becomes collective belief.

    Feeling trapped, is at the core of some aspects of one’s mental health, and also organizational distress. The deep awareness […]
    September 2nd, 2019

    Employee loyalty is a plural. Leadership is the host of that plurality, always an irrational mix

    What should employees be loyal to? Ask an average leader: to the company, of course. Loyalty may be disguised. It […]
    August 31st, 2019

    Habits have no meaning, they create it. Start with behaviours, get meaning

    In my organizational consulting work, and in behavioural terms, I am very used to be told, and challenged, that there […]
    August 30th, 2019

    A mobilizing platform is the human operating system of the company. You need to install your HOS

    I said yesterday that for large scale mobilization of people (AKA social movements, AKA company culture), it needs a platform. […]
    August 29th, 2019

    Large scale mobilization of people needs a small scale set of orchestrators. It works in society and it works in organizations

    I wish I could remember where I did read these stats.  Russia under the Tsar 1914-1917…had 180 million peasants and […]
    August 28th, 2019

    Get on the phone. It’s personal.

    In the era of digital semi anonymity, personal contact wins. In the era of corporate email broadcasting, personal contact wins. […]
    August 27th, 2019

    Slow Change, Fast change. Mobilizing people: the alternative view

    Whether in society or inside the organization, we have plenty of ‘theories of change’ surprisingly unchallenged. Can we please look […]
    August 26th, 2019

    15 things to look for in a culture

    Over the years, I have had lots of conversations about ‘corporate culture’ and in particular  ‘what to measure’. I must […]
    August 24th, 2019

    The tyranny of the small things

    Grandiose plans get sabotaged by small things. Many years ago, I was involved in what was going to be a […]
    August 23rd, 2019

    Will the last employee in Command and Control Inc/Ltd/Plc/SA please turn off the lights? (But have a good lantern with you)

    The new, emerging organizations, many people would agree, are more collaborative, more leadership-distributed, less top-down, with more levels of empowerment […]
    August 22nd, 2019

    The clouds move to follow me; the traffic lights go green when I move

    These two statements represent a form of magical thinking of the kind seen in ancient humans (clouds) and todays humans […]
    August 21st, 2019

    We are so good at crisis!

    Many clients have expressed this thought over the years: ‘Leandro, we are so good at crisis!’ And indeed they were!  […]
    August 20th, 2019

    The Rolling Luggage Paradox

    I owe this to Nassim Taleb (‘Fooled by Randomness’ (2007), ‘The Black Swan’ (2008), ‘Antifragile’ (2013). As a traveller of many years […]
    August 19th, 2019

    Make your trade off(s) transparent

    In my experience, people can understand budget cuts, but there are several types of acceptance, leading to several levels of […]
    August 17th, 2019

    I can prove anything in management thinking. Watch me!

    I can’t remember where I saw this. This is part of the point. It could have been anywhere. But I […]
    August 16th, 2019

    Stop press: Candidate interviewed by authentic people

    A recent senior hire in a client company commented to me that the thing that most impressed her in the […]
    August 14th, 2019

    Empowerment: the muddle. The wrong conversation, until you start unpacking the concept and dismantling the house of buzzwords.

    The ‘expectations muddle’ of empowerment has different shapes and flavours: I expect you to do something but you don’t think […]
    August 12th, 2019

    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 […]
    August 9th, 2019

    ‘The Dunbar Number’ and ‘Mad Lean Numbers’: a question of the right critical mass of people to make things happen.

    Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist and psychologist, Oxford professor, has formulated that 150 was the “cognitive limit to the number of […]
    August 7th, 2019

    If you want to increase employee engagement and employee satisfaction, increase your company performance (yes, the order is not a typo)

    There is evidence, intelligently articulated by Phil Rosenzweig in 2007 (The Halo Effect), that a series of measures of employee […]
    August 5th, 2019

    There must be a better way (I have good news)

    There must be a better way than having 200 consultants landing in my company and doing the stuff for me, […]
    August 2nd, 2019

    A behavioural epidemic can’t be fought from within. It needs a behavioural counter-epidemic to take over

    I have explored this theme before in my Daily Thoughts, but I feel compelled to go back! Behavioural issues, whether […]
    July 31st, 2019

    “There are two types of people in the world: those who can extrapolate from incomplete data sets”

    What type are you? How our mental models work is part of the Minimal Introspection, something we tend to overlook, […]
    July 29th, 2019

    Iconic leadership: the illusion of copying a one off

    Whilst the holidays roll on, here is a leadership theme to consider Picture this organization.  Closed culture, culture of secrecy, […]
    July 26th, 2019

    The 3 Grand Ds (‘Direction, Discovery and Destiny’), have also their 3 little personal and powerful ‘d’ sisters.

    Good Morning! The following article extends on our recent series on leadership this week. In the book by Gary Hamel […]
    July 25th, 2019

    The best question is the one which has no answer

    Good Morning!  Here is the last of our series of three on Leadership this week. Recently, I keep finding myself […]
    July 24th, 2019

    ‘We have a communication problem’ is not always a good start.

    ‘Lack of communication’ or  ‘a communication problem’, is perhaps number one declared culprit in most of our troubled organizational life. […]
    July 23rd, 2019

    It takes only one question to know about your model of leadership (and there is always an alternative question, just in case)

    Morning to you.  Here is my second post in a series of three on Leadership: Don’t define leadership for me. […]
    July 22nd, 2019

    My contradictions are my friends, and they come with me as leader

    We praise people because of their ‘clarity of mind’. We say, ‘she is a good manager, she knows what she […]
    July 20th, 2019

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

    Continuing my revised 12 laws of social change at a scale. Very simple laws apply to any large scale change […]
    July 19th, 2019

    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 […]
    July 18th, 2019

    In the War for Attention within your company, you may need a communication ceasefire

    Our faith in communication is enormous. Why? Perhaps because we know well the problems associated with the lack of communication. […]
    July 17th, 2019

    Innovation? Great, but I am not in charge of it!

    Years ago I was talking to a client, a Senior VP in the company, about a project that had to […]
    July 16th, 2019

    Organizations have their own ‘People who like this, also like that’. Their ideology (idea-Logic) may be too crafted. (2/2)

    This week, I offered 10 types of people that challenge the status quo in organizations. I also mentioned that our […]
    July 15th, 2019

    10 types of people who challenge the status quo in the organization. The art of dissenting

    Who challenges in organizations? People who have nothing to lose People who know that the art of challenging, equals not […]
    July 13th, 2019

    ‘Nothing new under the sun’ ? Take off your sun glasses and stop the Valium

    Often you see people in organizations disillusioned with changes, considering themselves survivors of the yet another reorg, getting on with […]
    July 12th, 2019

    We need the aliens. Everybody needs aliens. Smart aliens who can ask questions and open Pandora boxes for us.

    The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person […]
    July 11th, 2019

    Micro-behaviours plus peer-to-peer equals social change dynamite

    Serious behavioural change? Start with micro-behaviours, then walk backwards to values, never the other way around. And bring peer-to-peer or […]
    July 10th, 2019

    Work-life balance: the on-off switch is broken, and they don’t make them any more.

    Forget work-life balance. It was a good concept that did a lot of good but has now retired. It cannot […]
    July 9th, 2019

    The fastest and best way to build a creative culture: all revealed now

    The fastest and best way to build a creative culture is to have lots of creative people together. No kidding. […]
    July 8th, 2019

    Accountability holes? Desert spaces? Orphan ideas? Buy the tent, occupy the street.

    Any organization has accountability holes, areas where nobody really owns the space. Sometimes these are true ‘grey areas’, sometimes are […]
    July 3rd, 2019

    Dreams deferred?

    Perhaps the  best we can do for the next generations is to understand their dreams. They are not the same […]
    July 2nd, 2019

    Always manage the verbs, not the nouns: teaming -up, not teams; role-modelling, not role models.

    We need teaming up, but we may not need more teams. We need role-modelling but may not need to call […]
    July 1st, 2019

    For any ‘what you say’ there are always many ‘how you say it’. Impact is in the how.

    Let’s revisit re-framing techniques. I covered this in a previous Daily Thought but still relevant today. Take  a look at […]
    June 28th, 2019

    Change is great, you go first.

    It’s 2019 – I wanted to revisit this from 2018 – are corporations developing, evolving, transforming, adapting….? And old sticker […]
    June 27th, 2019

    You want A, but you are systematically reinforcing B.

    A simple exercise that leaders can do, either on their own with paper and pen, or with their management team, […]
    June 26th, 2019

    There are Good Leaders, Excellent Leaders, and Gold Leaders.This is what Gold looks like

    A ‘Daily Thought’ taken from one of my Leadership series’. Gold leadership, is the one above silver and bronze, that’s […]
    June 25th, 2019

    If leadership in organizations followed some ‘activism rules’; not standard management logic. Here is one rule.

    One of the key rules of activism (social, political, cause) is not to spend more than the minimum necessary time […]
    June 21st, 2019

    The Daily Me, information bubbles, and keeping sane

    Something for the weekend. Written back in 2017 but still rings true today! We naturally retreat to comfort zones. If […]
    June 20th, 2019

    Happiness in the organization is an outcome not an input. Prescribing happiness is a behavioural nonsense.

    Another important idea (first published in 2016) worth revisiting. Enjoy! You can’t inject happiness in the organization. You can’t put […]
    June 19th, 2019

    “A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world.”

    A previously posted Daily Thought – well-worth revisiting. John Le Carre, British ex secret intelligence serviceman, espionage writer, dixit. He […]
    June 17th, 2019

    ‘All Big Data comes from the same place, the past’

    The formidable Rory Sutherland, vice chairman of Ogilvy (who declares that has ‘an attractively vague job title which has allowed […]
    June 14th, 2019

    Polarity is the new slavery. We need new Abolition Laws.

    On one side, taxes are good, big government, social welfare, fighting for social justice and social mobility, human rights, women […]
    June 13th, 2019

    Culture is the small print.

    Standard Operating Procedures, strategy documents, all normal process and systems and the organization chart are the headlines. If you really […]
    June 11th, 2019

    If you really want diversity and inclusion, don’t have a Programme on Diversity and Inclusion

    It is counterintuitive to managers but not to cognitive scientists. Given airtime to an issue is not always a good […]
    June 10th, 2019

    On the apparent difficulty of taking a holiday from yourself. As seen in a conference.

    A few days ago, I went to a conference. It’s unusual for me these days because I have close to […]
    June 3rd, 2019

    Managing by thermostat (I want a culture of feed forward, not feed-back)

    The Good Mechanics of Continuous Improvement have given us a culture of feed-back. Feed back is worshiped. There is a […]
    May 31st, 2019

    Companies with ‘autoimmune disease’ : difficult treatment and poor prognosis

    Sorry for the medicalization, an annoying legacy in my brain from many years of diagnosing and prescribing. Unlike many other […]
    May 30th, 2019

    I don’t know. And I suspect you don’t know either

    It’s terrifying. You are in front of an inquisitorial crowd, maybe your own people, and have to say, I don’t […]
    May 29th, 2019

    Stable culture is cultural sedimentation. It is like having a calcified boiler

    I don’t know anything about boilers. Only that they are prone to take sabbaticals and stop delivering. In many cases […]
    May 27th, 2019

    Corporate language (waiting for the robots to come?)

    I published this ages ago. Some people have asked me to repeat… since the robots are still coming and apparently […]
    May 21st, 2019

    Is victimhood a good model to understand some forms of employee disengagement?

    I have been researching for a while the not-that-easy topic of ‘cognitive mental frames’ or ‘mental models’ that take over […]
    May 20th, 2019

    Culture conversations hijacked

    We can measure anything. Vital things, rubbish things, relevant, secondary, soft, hard, anything. We have been told by the Wise […]
    May 15th, 2019

    Be authentic not Fake You. But you may not be liked.

    What is authenticity? For starters, a very nice word. One of these that we love to attach as a command: […]
    May 10th, 2019

    People with all the answers may be overqualified for their jobs

    First published in September 2018. An American educator said that children entered school as a question mark and left school […]
    May 9th, 2019

    Question: what is the cost of not doing X?

    First published in August 2018. We are used to look at the cost of doing things. And rightly so. We […]
    May 8th, 2019

    Confronted with dysfunctionality, a reorganization solution must be the last resort, not the first.

    First posted back in January. Most of our organizational problems are behavioural. Structural answers hardly solve behavioural problems. Amalgamating A […]
    May 7th, 2019

    If the business is the mission, culture is the strategy

    First published in November 2018 If one thing has become clear after all these decades of management soul-searching for more […]
    April 30th, 2019

    ‘Let our destination be decided by the winds of our discussion’

    Socrates said. Or Plato said Socrates said. Socrates never wrote a word. He did not trust them. They were the […]
    April 29th, 2019

    ‘What is in it for me?’ Don’t answer that for anybody

    This is a question always  tempting leaders to give an answer. Eager to show that people will benefit, we spend […]
    April 25th, 2019

    Changing minds?

    My mind is not for change. Look how strong I am. In the Brexit context, the discussion has often been […]
    April 24th, 2019

    Reflection is subversive. Uprise! Slow down!

    Space to reflect? Where is that? Are you saying we are not reflective? Don’t we have an intelligence? Are you […]
    April 23rd, 2019

    ‘Culture of feed back’ has gone nuts

    I know leaders who are obsessed with this: the systematic use of feed back between managers and staff, between people. […]
    April 15th, 2019

    Walking e-bays bearing second hand thoughts

    We are pulled to conform to the group, to participate, to contribute, to say something. Nodding is not enough. Taking […]
    April 11th, 2019

    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 […]
    April 10th, 2019

    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 […]
    April 9th, 2019

    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 […]
    April 8th, 2019

    How to start a discussion of a small problem and end it with having a big one

    (the series on Employee Engagement will continue later) Organizational dynamics are full of ‘default thinking’. We assume that some things […]
    April 5th, 2019

    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 […]
    April 4th, 2019

    Employee Engagement week ( 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 […]
    April 3rd, 2019

    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 […]
    April 2nd, 2019

    Debunking the Myths of Employee Engagement: a land of Emperors with No Clothes. (1/7) The six models

    Over the next 7 days, we wanted to revist a series of posts from 2017, exploring the important topic of […]
    March 26th, 2019

    Individualism and collaboration are contagious. This is no news, but some experiments may explain how

    In yet another experiment by Nicholas Christakis team (see previous Daily Thought on mistakes by robots!) they tested the power […]
    March 25th, 2019

    ‘Oops! Sorry! I got this wrong’. Share mistakes to increase collaboration.

    Being open about mistakes, own mistakes, team mistakes, has always being considered a driver for trust. If I as leader […]
    March 22nd, 2019

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

    First published October 2018 If you love KPIs, here is one. The attractiveness of your (corporate) function is defined by […]
    March 21st, 2019

    The Zeus strategy: de-aggregating the problem

    First published back in 2016 Plato told us in his Symposium that humans were originally androgynous, not men or women. […]
    March 20th, 2019

    Leave your sandals at the door

    First published in November 2017. This is the request we make at the beginning of a Viral Change™ programme. Forget […]
    March 15th, 2019

    ‘Getting out of the way’ as a leadership strategy

    First published September 2018 Also called get out of the room and don’t interfere. Also asking the question ‘may I […]
    March 14th, 2019

    If the business is the mission, culture is the strategy

    First published back in November 2018. If one thing has become clear after all these decades of management soul-searching for […]
    March 11th, 2019

    If I were the CEO’s speechwriter for a day, this I will say

    Don’t look at us, at the leadership at the top. We are the wrong mirror. Of course, we are committed […]
    March 7th, 2019

    ‘If’ the management poem. c2019

    Every year I review the version of this list and share with my community. Here is again, 2019 mode, with […]
    March 5th, 2019

    Culture is what happens when compliance leaves the room

    The unwritten rules of the organization tell you more about its culture than all powerpoionts of its leadership programmes. The […]
    February 28th, 2019

    The intensity of the discussion is often inversely correlated with the importance of the issue

    There are many versions of the same principle. We spend disproportionate amounts of time on issues. We often have deep […]
    February 26th, 2019

    Company culture is the fabric, the tapestry. David Brook’s wants to find all the weavers (tejedores, tisseurs…)

    David Brooks, columnist of the New York Times and author (too conservative for the liberals and too liberal for the […]
    February 25th, 2019

    Forgot to ask what motivates you (but we all people are the same, anyway)

    Organizational life can go on, driven by management, without asking people about their motivations. These are assumed in a rather […]
    February 20th, 2019

    15 random organizational irritations and inconvenient truths

    Bottom-up is not more (of the same) workshops but at the bottom of the organization. Changing the geography of top-down […]
    February 19th, 2019

    ‘But, how many people need to change for a culture to change?’

    The ‘critical mass’ concept, as the number of people required to move forward, to change collective behaviours, to see a […]
    February 18th, 2019

    The Free Rider Problem in organizations

    The Free Rider problem is studied in social sciences and refers to people who benefit from a collective (mainly public) […]
    February 15th, 2019

    The obvious but overlooked fact that connectivity and collaboration are not always good.

    Increasing the connectivity of people, who will benefit from enhanced collaboration ,to achieve good things better, faster, differently, is a […]
    February 14th, 2019

    ‘Every Corpse on Everest was once an extremely motivated person’

    I don’t know where this comes from but it’s in posts and posters all over. It’s perhaps one of these […]
    February 13th, 2019

    Clues to mobilize people inside the corporate tent, come from outside that tent.

    People reading these Daily Thoughts may be used to common themes, indeed. After all, I am not writing about nuclear […]
    February 8th, 2019

    Kids characters are shaped in the playground, not the classroom

    And employee characters, and company culture, and all the unwritten rules of the organization are shaped in the cafeteria, the […]
    February 7th, 2019

    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 […]
    February 6th, 2019

    There is a strong case to start reading a book backwards. And other rambling comments

    Given our growing impatience and limited attention span (our minds are overheated in the filtering of information, like traffic control […]
    February 4th, 2019

    Monochrome cultures ( and their Royal Courts)

    Possibility is perhaps the most beautiful word in management. There are organizations in which possibilities seem exhausted, work is an […]
    February 1st, 2019

    Purpose kidnapped?

    Suddenly purpose is back. We are told that Millennials want purpose. Which may be true. As much as many other […]
    January 31st, 2019

    ‘If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change’

    Attention Chief Transformation Officers, Offices of Transformation, Change Management Units, and Change Offices, and Projects of Future A,B,C,. Units of […]
    January 29th, 2019

    ‘Victorious warriors win first and then go to war’ (coaching session circa 500 BC)

    The full quote: ‘Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to […]
    January 28th, 2019

    And they took the British flag with them

    Yesterday, my wife and I said goodbye to a good friend from France who works as a high level executive […]
    January 24th, 2019

    The person saying ‘we need to make sure that’ is probably the less likely person who will do anything ‘to make sure that’

    Wisdom Nomads go form meeting to meeting. ‘We need to make sure that’, ‘we have to know how this fits […]
    January 23rd, 2019

    Most mechanics of behavioural change sold to organizations, are deceitful armchair inventions.

    Behavioural change is still presented in many quarters with the same language as installing a piece of software. Or maybe […]
    January 22nd, 2019

    Confronted with dysfunctionality, a reorganization solution must be the last resource, not the first.

    Most of our organizational problems are behavioural Structural answers hardly solve behavioural problems. Amalgamating A and B because A and […]
    January 21st, 2019

    Catastrophic success (may even have a celebration party)

    I was used to the concept of catastrophic failure, but not catastrophic success, until I read an article in the […]
    December 14th, 2018

    Daily Thoughts takes a break, but you don’t have to

    Hello from The Chalfont Project Daily Thoughts is in pause mode until the New Year. You can still browse and […]
    December 10th, 2018

    Leaders and Change: 12 Rules. (1) Stop admiring the problem

    Some organizations seem to have a love affair with problems. They love their disruptive and furtive nature.  Secret encounters in […]
    December 4th, 2018

    Peter’s world in a reasonable day.

    I could  not sleep, it was almost unbearable. Then I woke up and  the weather was horrible. The traffic was […]
    December 3rd, 2018

    8 hard arguments on culture for people who think this is is fluffy, woolly, soft stuff

      Culture is the difference between 30 people making a decision in 30 days, and 3 people making the same […]
    November 30th, 2018

    Teamocracies are tired, networkracies win the day.

    For as long as anybody can remember in management history, the team has been highlighted as the unquestionable form of […]
    November 29th, 2018

    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 […]
    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 […]
    October 16th, 2018

    The Irish Health Service silent culture revolution is driven by ‘if-not-us-who?’ employees

    Two years  ago, starting in the Midwest of Ireland, a bottom up social movement, ‘Values in Action’, started to shape […]
    October 15th, 2018

    ‘Act as if you were the owner’ (really?)

    This has become a mantra used by many leaders to express the desire that people take seriously their commitments ‘as […]
    October 11th, 2018

    Sweating, pain, temperature. Organizations can show symptoms.

    Some organizations are breathless. Frantic. It could be good or bad, usually not too good.  Other organizations are like funerary […]
    October 9th, 2018

    Some things that are not (a sort of inconvenience)

    Malaria is not an increase of temperature in the thermometer Employee engagement is not a score in a Gallup scale […]
    October 8th, 2018

    The ‘cult of fun’ in the organization. The takeover of fulfilment by fun.

    For many non-American, non-Anglo-saxon organizations the idea of fun is ‘that American thing’. It’s a bit unfair and reductionistic. I […]
    October 5th, 2018

    For every ‘I have a dream’, there are thousands of ‘are you serious?’

    The recent launch of the “Mobilize!” Masterclass has led to much discussion about Social Movements here at Daily Thoughts HQ. […]
    October 3rd, 2018

    10 rules for external or internal partners, for change or transformation.

    These rules apply whether you are an external partner or an internal one. Rule number 1. Resistance is never universal. […]
    October 2nd, 2018

    Management conversation

    Do you understand the strategy? Yes Can you see why we need to change, to do anything? Yes Do you […]
    October 1st, 2018

    Talk a lot, meet a lot, converse little. Time to call Socrates back

    Semi connected reflections: [1] We talk a lot, email a lot, reply a lot, post a lot, say ‘I agree […]
    September 27th, 2018

    All the roads lead to Rome, but mind the axle of the car

    A friend of mine Carlos Orozco  uses this analogy. If you are driving a car and you have a puncture, […]
    September 26th, 2018

    You are your calendar. Calendars don’t lie.

    Airtime is finite. Initiatives, activities, tasks, ideas, attention to people, reaching the boss, innovation discussions, programmes, change programmes, leadership programmes, […]
    September 25th, 2018

    Change? Give us a break, we have just had organization plastic surgery

    In the previous  Daily Thoughts I suggested: Readiness is a red herring and usually an alibi for not starting something […]
    September 24th, 2018

    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 […]
    September 20th, 2018

    Quick Philosophy of Time in one page (Untapped applications for management)

    [1] January starts around the 10th of the month. February is shorter and boring. Unless you go skiing, which half […]
    September 18th, 2018

    People with all the answers may be overqualified for their jobs

    An American educator said that children entered school as a question mark and left school as a full stop. I […]
    September 17th, 2018

    The ‘Smoking Kills’ equivalent in Corporate Communications

    ‘Smoking kills’, or ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ or ‘Get the Flu Vaccine’ are wonderful attempts to warn your fellow citizens […]
    September 14th, 2018

    The influencers have arrived! What can we do?

    Many years ago companies started to say ‘we are organized in project teams’. Professional projectization was the thing. Until it […]
    September 12th, 2018

    ‘The candidate who is less afraid of losing usually wins’

    This is an unwritten rule in US presidential elections and a line in a witty and fascinating book by Dan […]
    September 11th, 2018

    Mobilize! Masterclass. A blueprint for social movements inside the organization and society. Launched to Daily Thoughts readers.

    From The Chalfont Project, UK office: Dear all. Dr Leandro Herrero has produced a 5 hour masterclass divided into 28 […]
    September 10th, 2018

    ‘Getting out of the way’ as a leadership strategy

    Also called get out of the room and don’t interfere. Also asking the question ‘may I be, perhaps, actually, the […]
    September 7th, 2018

    For better decisions, bring the foreigners

    Our thinking is far from rational. What’s new? Perhaps ‘making a rational decision’ should be reframed as ‘making a decision […]
    September 6th, 2018

    Team Rules: a sample

    One of my favourite sets of Team Rules. Real life. Not invented. One of my best clients. Always curious No […]
    September 5th, 2018

    Employee engagement, fruit bowls and free peanuts

    A headline in a newspaper on the 9th of August 2018 red ‘Deutsche Bank Cuts Again. Not Even Fruit Bowls […]
    September 3rd, 2018

    To tell you the truth

    ‘To tell you the truth’ is an opening in English conversation. Other similar are ‘to be honest with you’, or […]
    August 31st, 2018

    The impact of unintended/extended positive consequences of organizational initiatives may be bigger than the individual desired outcomes. So who sees them?

    Co-benefit is a term broadly used in the Climate Change movement to explain the unintended/extended consequences of actions beyond an […]
    August 30th, 2018

    For any ‘what you say’ there are always many ‘how you say it’. Impact is in the how.

    Take  a look at these 5 re-frames. You should see the differences not just the simple literary ones but the […]
    August 29th, 2018

    Change is great, you go first.

    And old sticker said This is a situation in which I find myself very often: Several corporate groups agree (vocally, […]
    August 28th, 2018

    You want A, but you are systematically reinforcing B.

    A simple exercise that leaders can do, either on their own with paper and pen, or with their management team, […]
    August 24th, 2018

    Breaking news: Company culture is very important. A high level business academic piece of research says. (Who moved my Valium?)

    We need a revolution in business academia or it will become irrelevant. Apprenticeships  are already far greater value than academic […]
    August 22nd, 2018

    Question: what is the cost of not doing X?

    We are used to looking at the cost of doing things. And rightly so. We ask those questions as a […]
    August 21st, 2018

    Most conspiracies of silence and coverups in our organizations are not even consciously orchestrated

    And those which are maybe less dangerous than those who aren’t. In an old 2005 study, which findings are very […]
    August 20th, 2018

    ‘Labor omnia vincit’. So let’s get back to ‘it’, with a good pair of glasses.

    ‘Work conquers all’, or ‘steady work overcomes all things’ Virgil dixit. For many, the time of post-break is approaching, if […]
    August 17th, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Social Movements (part 3 of 3)

    Welcome to the last in our summer recap series. We hope you have enjoyed re-reading some of our favourite posts […]
    August 15th, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Social Movements (part 2 of 3)

    The second of this week’s recap posts on Social Movements. Enjoy! Tribes in the organization: seeing the world in segments, […]
    August 13th, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Social Movements (part 1 of 3)

    Normal service will be resuming shortly at Daily Thoughts HQ! But first, we wanted to share some of the best […]
    August 10th, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Leadership (part 3 of 3)

    Here is the third of our favourite posts on Leadership. Enjoy and have a great weekend! The ‘research’ for the […]
    August 8th, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Leadership (part 2 of 3)

    Here is the 2nd of this week’s revisited posts focused on Leadership… Three magic questions for leaders 1. Will I […]
    August 6th, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Leadership (part 1 of 3)

    Welcome to the third in our series of summer “Recaps”, this week focusing on Leadership. We hope you enjoy our […]
    August 3rd, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Culture (part 3 of 3)

    Here is the third of our favourite posts on Culture. Enjoy and have a great weekend! Grab the magic thresholds […]
    August 1st, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Culture (part 2 of 3)

    The second of this week’s posts on Culture. Enjoy! Lazy managers love questionnaires No offence to questionnaires. They are legitimate […]
    July 30th, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Culture (part 1 of 3)

    As Daily Thoughts is taking a short summer hiatus, this week we are sending you a few of our favourite […]
    July 27th, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Viral Change™ (part 3 of 3)

    Here is this week’s final recap post looking at the Viral Change™ Mobilizing Platform. Have a great weekend! Networks have […]
    July 26th, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Viral Change™ (part 2 of 3)

    Here is this week’s second “recap” post on the Viral Change™ Mobilizing Platform. Enjoy!   Change management is dead. Let’s […]
    July 24th, 2018

    Weekly Recap: Viral Change™ (part 1 of 3)

    Dear Readers, Daily Thoughts is taking a short holiday! But never fear, over the next few weeks we will be […]
    July 19th, 2018

    The journey: for an Himalayan trip, trust a few good shepherds. Including your company Himalayans

    Organizational transformation equals organizational life. Sometimes we add an adjective to signpost a direction. For example, digital transformation. Very often […]
    July 18th, 2018

    If work shapes our lives, should ‘management’ and ‘company’ have a bit of reboot?

    In the old days of my parents, there was an unwritten consensus that your problems in life, your anxiety at […]
    July 13th, 2018

    There is a strong case to start reading a book backwards. And other rambling comments

    Given our growing impatience and limited attention span (our minds are overheated in the filtering of information, like traffic control […]
    July 12th, 2018

    Management technique: the transplant

    The answer to individual negativity is group positiveness.  Fighting individual negativity at individual level is a risky fight. If you […]
    July 11th, 2018

    The obvious but overlooked fact that connectivity and collaboration are not always good.

    Increasing the connectivity of people, who will benefit from enhanced collaboration ,to achieve good things better, faster, differently, is a […]
    July 10th, 2018

    Engage to flip. (2 of 3). A magic threshold of number of people to shape a company culture? It’s actually complicated.

    (A similar version of this post was released out of sync with it;’s part 1. Apologies for those who got […]
    July 9th, 2018

    Engage to flip. (1 of 3). A magic threshold of number of people needed to shape a company culture? The headlines

    A glitch in the system made the publication of part 2 of this out of sync and was sent last […]
    July 4th, 2018

    Team, the noun, the structure, or teaming up, the verb, the behaviour?

    Teamocracy may be the worst form of people collaboration  except for all those other forms that have been tried from […]
    July 3rd, 2018

    Cooking and shopping are two different things. I wish some ‘change managers’ could distinguish

    If you talk to my clients, they will tell you that I use cooking analogies all the time. Cook this, […]
    July 2nd, 2018

    Focus, focus! But only after un-focusing a lot

    Our managerial training and praxis has been quite successful at making us guilty of not focusing enough on a task […]
    June 28th, 2018

    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 […]
    June 27th, 2018

    How many people on your payroll have never licked a stamp?

    Beloit College, in Wisconsin, creates every year a ‘Mindset List’ It shows a list of facts about a particular new […]
    June 26th, 2018

    Storytelling wins wars whilst everything else is fighting battles (and 3 of 3): event shocks coming to you, that may not feel like gifts.

    In October 2013, a ship carrying migrants sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa. 300 people drowned. As The Guardian journalist Kenan […]
    June 25th, 2018

    Three magic questions for leaders

    1. Will I regret not doing this? Bezos, Amazon chief. Here it is from a recent article: ‘When faced with […]
    June 22nd, 2018

    Storytelling wins wars whilst everybody else is fighting battles. (2 of 3): leaders of organizations, are you listening?

    Friday 25 May, 2018. Ireland votes 66.4% in favour of repealing the Eight Amendment of its Constitution, inserted in 1983, […]
    June 21st, 2018

    Storytelling wins wars whilst everyybody else is fighting battles (1 of 3): the ingredients

    Today we are in front of daily wars of narratives: political, social, models of the world, futures, concept of Man. […]
    June 20th, 2018

    The bottleneck in organizations is gone North. Stop blaming middle management. Look up.

    For the last, at least, 10 years of my consulting life, I have struggled to confirm the thesis, well publicised […]
    June 18th, 2018

    Grab the magic thresholds in the organization’s life

    Continuous culture shaping within an organization equals social movement: large scale behavioural and cultural change, for a purpose, powered by […]
    June 15th, 2018

    People who welcome criticism don’t say ‘I welcome criticism’

    ‘I welcome criticism’ is often an alibi to avoid criticism. OK, that’s as harsh as it goes for a generic. […]
    June 13th, 2018

    ‘How can we make this fail?” is a more powerful question than its opposite

    Accustomed as we are to create plans to succeed  on something, this may sound counterintuitive. Creating (serious) plans for failure […]
    June 12th, 2018

    Plan for the intended, watch the unintended, embrace the extended

    (1) We plan operations, change, leadership, anything, with intended consequences in mind. These are often translated into KPIs, milestones, and […]
    June 11th, 2018

    For every ‘I have a dream’, there are thousands of ‘are you serious?’

    For every community struggling to achieve something, and deciding to launch some form of collective action; for every minority that […]
    June 7th, 2018

    Mind the frame ( or you may regret your frame of mind)

    George Lakoff, a familiar name in these Daily Thoughts, is on a mission. The US cognitive psychology specialist,  emeritus professor, […]
    June 6th, 2018

    May Change Management have a great funeral

    I good friend, expert in Communications, has created her new website with a prominent quote of mine, ‘Change Management as […]
    June 5th, 2018

    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 […]
    June 4th, 2018

    The alternative Post-mortem of failed change programmes. (and 5 of 5): we communicate too much.

    In this miniseries I have shared so far four inconvenient truths uncovered by the forensics of ‘change management’ failure: Too […]
    May 31st, 2018

    The alternative Post-mortem of failed change programmes. (4 of 5): Too much vision, not lack of it

    Forth in the mini series:  uncovering of truths of the failure of change and transformation programmes, via a reverse engineering. […]
    May 30th, 2018

    The alternative Post-mortem of failed change programmes. (3 of 5): Antibodies to start with.

    Third installment in the uncovering of truths via a reverse engineering of the failure of change and transformation programmes. Finding: […]
    May 29th, 2018

    The alternative Post-mortem of failed change programmes. (2 of 5): It was fireworks and corporate flash mobs

    Second installment in the uncovering of truths via a reverse engineering of the failure of change and transformation programmes. Many […]
    May 28th, 2018

    The alternative Post-mortem of failed change programmes. (1 of 5): There were too many people involved, and too much debate. Not the opposite.

    This five part mini-series (!) is not glamourous. It tries to uncover some inconvenient truths via a reverse engineering of […]
    May 25th, 2018

    In my shopping list for new leaders, circa 2018 (and 5 of 5): Mobilizers

    Managing? Leading?  Probably one of the worse dichotomies ever invented. Another day. Engaging? Motivating? Committing? Consider Mobilizing! It means…what it […]
    May 24th, 2018

    In my shopping list for new leaders, circa 2018 (4 of 5): Invitational people

    I have held the view for many years that management is ‘by invitation’ (Disruptive Ideas, 2008). For example, I am […]
    May 23rd, 2018

    In my shopping list for new leaders, circa 2018 (3 of 5): Bridge builders

    The word Pontifex (Pontiff in English) is the term associated with the Pope (twitter account…err.. @pontifex, what else?). I love […]
    May 22nd, 2018

    In my shopping list for new leaders, circa 2018 (2 of 5): Reframing

    I have referred before to  George Lakoff’s work and his little book ‘Don’t think of an elephant’, which makes the […]
    May 21st, 2018

    In my shopping list for new leaders, circa 2018 (1 of 5): Depolarization

    F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of many who have described this, but his articulation is the one widely quoted: “The […]
    May 18th, 2018

    Organisational culture shaping. Counterinsurgency field manual (and 5 of 5): Be a bit inefficient if you want to be effective. Or you can be boring

    The problem with super efficacy and super efficiency is that what works for a Swiss watch does not work for […]
    May 17th, 2018

    Organisational culture shaping. Counterinsurgency field manual (4 of 5): Structural changes hardly solve behavioural problems. It’s a trap.

    Structural answers to organizational problems are very unlikely to succeed. Division A people don’t collaborate with Division B people, so […]
    May 16th, 2018

    Organisational culture shaping. Counterinsurgency field manual (3 of 5): don’t do half social (unless you want to kill a project)

    Would you join a Facebok with 100 users? A Yammer with few entries? A Twitter where only a few tweets? […]
    May 15th, 2018

    Organisational culture shaping. Counterinsurgency field manual (2 of 5): Learn from mistakes (only if your manager does too).

    Learning from mistakes, make mistakes, learn, it’s OK, mistakes are OK, we are human, if we did not make mistakes […]
    May 14th, 2018

    Organizational culture, Counterinsurgency Field Manual (1 of 5): What to do with toxic people.

    Toxic people. A sample. The top 12 to watch: The bully who is not challenged The bully who is not […]
    May 10th, 2018

    News from the front line

    Yesterday was International Receptionist Day. Perhaps it was buried in a myriad of International Days of Something. But the receptionist […]
    May 9th, 2018

    The geography of change. Where to start.

    Read. Take a deep breath. Read again. Keep breathing, think about this. ‘The system will prevent itself from solving the […]
    May 8th, 2018

    Organizational structures that (dis) aggregate by design

    New organizations, and old ones in the business of transforming themselves, would be better off learning by heart these two […]
    May 3rd, 2018

    Framing is a leadership must (3 of 3): ‘Intention and Outcome’

    My third framing comment, after (1) framing new behaviours, and (2) the framing of the overall narrative of the organization, […]
    May 1st, 2018

    Framing is a leadership must (2 of 3): frame the narrative before it frames you

    I said yesterday that I would put framing at the top of the list on ‘leadership tasks’ I also said […]
    April 30th, 2018

    Framing is a leadership must (1 of 3): your mini-revolution starts with simple behaviours.

    I put framing at the top of the list on ‘leadership tasks’. One of those non-rocket-sciences around us that we […]
    April 27th, 2018

    These are my trade-offs, what about yours?

    We never solve problems, we trade them off. The thought is not depressing. It is liberating because it means we […]
    April 26th, 2018

    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 […]
    April 25th, 2018

    Magic trick to ‘engagement’: leave the sandals at the door

    If you follow my Daily Thoughts you would know that I despise Employee Engagement as something that you need to […]
    April 24th, 2018

    ‘How does the medicine know where to go in the body?’

    When my daughter was in primary school, I was invited by the teacher to give a presentation to small girls […]
    April 23rd, 2018

    Organizations wired wrong (and 5 of 5): If you want ‘One Company’ surely it’s because you don’t have one. The more you push it, the more it will slip away.

    No medium to large size company has a single culture.  No medium to large size French, or British or American […]
    April 19th, 2018

    Organizations wired wrong (4 of 5): Don’t team up with people you know very well.

    Affinity, like-minded groupings and ‘we know each other very well’ works if what you want is to get things done, […]
    April 18th, 2018

    Organizations wired wrong (3 of 5): Behaviours create cultures. Cultures do not create behaviours (unless they have them already)

    Our concept of organizational culture as a receptacle for values, beliefs, attitudes, mindsets, ways of doing, written rules, unwritten rules, […]
    April 17th, 2018

    Organizations wired wrong (2 of 5): Why if you want ‘transparency’ you should not ask for it.

    An 18 year old paper in social anthropology by Marilyn Strathern (then at Cambridge) had the intriguing title of ‘The […]
    April 16th, 2018

    Organizations wired wrong (1 of 5): desired outcomes mistaken as inputs. The case of ‘Engagement’

    Employee engagement is an outcome, not in input. You don’t inject engagement or engineer activities to engage. Those do exist. […]
    April 12th, 2018

    The ‘research’ for the real-real unique attributes of world class leadership is embarrassing.

    I sometimes think that management thinking, management speak and management education (that includes ‘research’) makes everything possible to avoid critical […]
    April 11th, 2018

    Organizational Pathologies (and finally (!) 10 of 10): Empowerment as risk transfer (or the traffic of monkeys across the organization)

    This is the last one in the series  of 10 Organizational Pathologies, and the longest write up. Sorry! Bear with […]
    April 10th, 2018

    Organizational Pathologies (9 of 10): Measure the measurable

    Attributed to Peter Drucker, we have inherited the ‘you can’t manage what you can’t measure’. Drucker meant that you need […]
    April 9th, 2018

    Organizational Pathologies (8 of 10): Busy-ness

    Almost there, two to go. I have posted one pathology per day (see the website) Busy-ness! From all organizational pathologies […]
    April 6th, 2018

    Organizational Pathologies (7 of 10): Useless over-inclusiveness

    Over inclusiveness paralysis occurs as a side effect of good intentions. The intentions are usually democratic, egalitarian, based on respect […]
    April 4th, 2018

    Organizational Pathologies (6 of 10) : Processism and process junkies

    Processes are supposed to provide these three  things A sure and presumably tested path to address repetitive situations, so that […]
    April 3rd, 2018

    Organizational Pathologies (5 of 10): The company in rehearsal mode (or Waiting for The Barbarians)

    ‘Postponing’ (AKA as procrastination) maybe healthy and reasonable, maybe not. Cultures are created by behaviours. The best predictors of behaviours […]
    March 29th, 2018

    Organizational Pathologies (4 of 10): (Auto) Immune diseases

    In medicine, autoimmune disease is one in which ‘the body produces antibodies that attack its own tissues, leading to the deterioration […]
    March 27th, 2018

    Organizational pathologies (3 of 10) : Premature de-hierarchical-ization

    Hierarchy is dead, proclaim people in the advanced, enlightened, guru-read organization. Hierarchy is bad, ugly, cause of all problems, constraining, […]
    March 26th, 2018

    Organizational Pathologies (2 of 10). Over-communication

    Communicate, communicate, communicate, we were told. All the problems go back to communication. This is your default culprit. In doubt, […]
    March 23rd, 2018

    Organizational Pathologies. An update (1 of 10): Solutionism

    Solutionism  is a common condition in which the energy and airtime of the organization is consumed in finding solutions to […]
    March 20th, 2018

    6 types of employees I want (2 of 2): synthesizers, designers and re-inventors of wheels

    I shared yesterday three types of employees I want for the modern organization. Different characters on the payroll. If there […]
    March 19th, 2018

    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 […]
    March 15th, 2018

    Obituary: Incrementalism

    Please pray for the soul of incrementalism that, after a long and slow incremental illness, left us for good. After […]
    March 14th, 2018

    The Church of Hard Evidence has many funny members of the congregation

    I have never found a client that says we don’t need evidence, or data, or facts, or hard measures. Most […]
    March 13th, 2018

    The world is messy, the consulting world is MECE

    I’ve learnt recently  a new Mckinsean acronym: MECE (Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive). Meaning, you break ‘it’ all down  in (Mutually […]
    March 8th, 2018

    Don’t read this. It’s a commercial. (Part 2 of 2, promise)

    Ok, so you are back. I shared yesterday 5 shifts. Here are the other 5. As I said yesterday, Viral […]
    March 7th, 2018

    Don’t read this. It’s a commercial. (part 1 of 2)

      Ok, if you insist, here it is. Commercial or not, it’s also true. I need to share with you […]
    March 6th, 2018

    Casinos don’t have clocks.

    Ryan Holiday (media critic, stoicism vendor, marketing strategist) is ‘the best-selling author of Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a […]
    March 5th, 2018

    The video and the audio of empowerment are out of sync.

    Have you seen those videos, or TV interviews, or programmes, in which there is a disconnect between what the person […]
    March 2nd, 2018

    A vast epidemic in organizations that seems to grow and grow

    I must say I am getting very frustrated to see more and more companies which  workforce seems to function as […]
    March 1st, 2018

    Networks have hierarchy and hierarchy have networks of it. Excuse the ranting.

    When I was young, very young, many moons ago, I remember my school mates and the priests having discussions such […]
    February 28th, 2018

    Memo: Permission never required, so don’t ask.

    I read a while ago this story. Within the highly structured and hierarchical (by design) Catholic church, a Religious Order […]
    February 27th, 2018

    ‘A few good men’.

    Part 2 of 2 from yesterday’s ‘The (re)volution will be postponed. Once more’ Margaret Mead (anthropologist, 1901-1978) ‘Never doubt that a […]
    February 26th, 2018

    The organization (re)volution will be postponed. Once more.

    The below is the equivalent of how in some organizations the so called ‘management of change’  or cultural transformation are […]
    February 23rd, 2018

    Which benchmarking data did you use to fall in love?

    Did you fall in love after reading case studies and using benchmarking data?  Did you see the Mona Lisa in […]
    February 22nd, 2018

    Entrepreneurs on the payroll

    Maybe, just maybe, we don’t  need ‘managers’ and ‘employees’, as in generals and troops. My strong bet is for a […]
    February 21st, 2018

    Tripadvisorisation of life

    Really? Recently I went to visit a specialist doctor in a private facility. Of course I was handed out a […]
    February 20th, 2018

    The Tyranny of Metrics.

    For the record, you can measure anything, the relevant, the irrelevant, the crucial and the distractions. Measuring is not a […]
    February 19th, 2018

    You can’t plan for unintended consequences, but you want as many good ones to emerge

    What if your unintended consequences were as big as the intended ones? This happens in our Viral Change™  programmes all […]
    February 16th, 2018

    Note to procurement: no more tanks, we got the wrong war.

    There was a time when ‘my tanks are bigger than yours’ was the so called competitive advantage. Bigger muscle, bigger […]
    February 13th, 2018

    Change management is dead. Let’s go and have a nice funeral

    No offense to those with the title in the business card. No offense to the whole industry. You are well […]
    February 12th, 2018

    We have a sophisticated brain with a not very sophisticated copying machine inside

    When researching for my 2011 book Homo Imitans, I was interested in the human ability to copy from our environment. […]
    February 10th, 2018

    Kids characters are shaped in the playground, not the classroom

    And employee characters, and company culture, and all the unwritten rules of the organization are shaped in the cafeteria, the […]
    February 9th, 2018

    Your mind will trick you. Including when you move jobs.

    When people join a company, coming from another one, they need to marry different worlds: The one of the company […]
    February 8th, 2018

    The burning platform was the greatest management invention. Now, can we move on?

    Apparently nothing can change unless there is as ‘burning platform’. Business and old change management loves that kind of drama. […]
    February 6th, 2018

    Lazy managers love questionnaires

    No offense to questionnaires. These are legitimate tools to know what is going on! People may argue that in a […]
    February 5th, 2018

    The tyranny of knowledge. Seeking unpredictable answers

    The ‘tyranny of knowledge’ is one of these phrases used in a diversity of contexts. It means amongst other things […]
    February 2nd, 2018

    We live in a cultural Hiroshima

    There is a point in time in which the brain starts filtering the images coming in, all the lines written, […]
    February 1st, 2018

    Back to the Daily Date.

    It’s been a while. Having a gap in the writing daily date helps to gain perspective. I went through a […]
    January 15th, 2018

    Announcing: MOBILIZE! Masterclass; a blueprint for social movements

    Happy New Year! Daily Thoughts will be back in flow on the 1st of February During this gap, I have […]
    December 14th, 2017

    And I’ll see you all back in the New Year!

    It has been an intense year in many aspects. I am grateful to clients and friends, and above all my […]
    December 13th, 2017

    The conspiracy of the books in my library.

    This is a straight quote from Nassim Taleb (Fooled by Randomness, Black Swan, Antifragile) A private library is not an […]
    December 12th, 2017

    The Pancake Revolution in management missed some details

    Flat organizations, part of the Pancake Revolution (got the patent pending) that we have gone through, trimming management layers and […]
    December 11th, 2017

    Amateurs borrow, professionals steal

    The phrase is from John Lennon who stole it from TS Elliott (‘amateur poets borrow; mature poets steal’). There are […]
    December 8th, 2017

    Do visionary leaders nominate non-visionary successors?

    Hardly a question I can answer with statistics, but I would tend to agree. This good article points in that […]
    December 6th, 2017

    If you have two guys who think the same, fire one of them

    I must have heard this for the first time from Tom Peters many years ago. He was, and he is, […]
    December 5th, 2017

    What do a flipchart, a kid’s dinosaurs toy, and a simulation software have in common?

      Donald Winnicott (1896- 1971) was a brilliant British psychoanalyst. And you won’t find many instances of my praising psychoanalysis, […]
    December 4th, 2017

    The absurd and the alien as sources of serious enlightenment

    In the old days of medical school and psychiatric training we used to say that schizophrenia was a secret society […]
    December 1st, 2017

    10 shifts in the Remarkable Organization in the making ( and Santa wishes ideas)

    In preparation for Santa, I suggest we aim at a package of shifts in the organizational life: a 10 point […]
    November 30th, 2017

    Warning: your people operating system is no longer supported. Upgrade!

    Some organizations want agility, entrepreneurship, great innovation and superb customer centrism. But they are operating with structures, processes and behaviours […]
    November 29th, 2017

    A type of project team member called ‘The Visitor’

    The Visitor is a full time member of a project team. He arrives late, very late. Smiles a lot. Takes […]
    November 28th, 2017

    Bezos did not tell us anything about the size of the pizzas.

    So some organizations cook very, very large ones. No, this is not a gastronomic blog. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO, said […]
    November 27th, 2017

    Try to have no work-life balance. The more you lose the balance, the more you’ll enjoy it.

    This is of course not something every mortal is privileged to do: to make ‘work’ an exciting, fulfilling and meaningful […]
    November 23rd, 2017

    A refresh of Viral Change in a 30 minutes video.

    I have recorded this for an HR and Communications conference that I could not attend. This is a good recent […]
    November 22nd, 2017

    Santa is too big for our chimney

    There is a moment in the life of our kids in which they start questioning the story of Santa coming […]
    November 21st, 2017

    Project management is a state of mind. Big Picture people must have it as well.

    Project management is a state of mind, not a software. But if you have both, it helps. Some people have […]
    November 20th, 2017

    Slow Change, Fast change. Mobilizing people: the alternative view ( 1 of 3)

    Whether in society or inside the organization, we have plenty of ‘theories of change’ surprisingly unchallenged. Can we please look […]
    November 19th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Activism

    Happy Weekend Daily Thoughts Subscribers! Here is a compilation of 3 of some our latest posts – all with the […]
    November 17th, 2017

    ‘They changed, they did well, because they were ready for it’.

    This piece of conventional wisdom is almost never true. That ‘they were ready’ is very often the a posterity rationalization. […]
    November 16th, 2017

    A mobilizing platform is the human operating system of the company. You need to install your HOS

    I said yesterday that large scale mobilization of people (AKA social movements, AKA company culture) needs a platform. They don’t […]
    November 15th, 2017

    Large scale mobilization of people needs a small scale set of orchestrators. It works in society and it works in organizations

    I wish I could remember where I did read these stats.  Russia under the Tsar 1914-1917…had 180 million peasants and […]
    November 14th, 2017

    15 things to look for in a culture

    In the last weeks, for a number of reasons, I have had lots of conversations about ‘corporate culture’ and in […]
    November 13th, 2017

    Spreading the word and unleashing a movement. Guest blogger

    Spreading the word and unleashing a movement Guest blogger: Kahlil Coyle. Social Movement Leader; Values in Action Core Team, Health […]
    November 12th, 2017

    End of Week Summary

    Welcome back Subscribers!   In case you are not aware, posting of Daily Thoughts resumed on Monday 6 November after […]
    November 10th, 2017

    Leave your sandals at the door

    This is the request we made at the beginning of a Viral Change™ programme. Forget your function and your hierarchical […]
    November 9th, 2017

    Get on the phone. It’s personal.

    In the era of digital semi anonymity, personal contact wins. In the era of corporate email broadcasting, personal contact wins. […]
    November 8th, 2017

    ‘Design thinking is bullshit’

    I did not say that. Natasha Jen did. She is a designer who has given some provocative presentations under this […]
    November 7th, 2017

    Teamocracies are tired, networkracies win the day.

    For as long as anybody can remember in management history, the team has been highlighted as the unquestionable form of […]
    November 6th, 2017

    And they all gave one day of their holidays.

    A true story. A health care worker is truly struggling to do her work and caring for a son who […]
    October 18th, 2017

    Pause, recap, reflect: See you on November 6th

    Dear Subscriber My team has been posting for a while, selected previously published Daily Thoughts.  Also retweeting some of them. […]
    October 6th, 2017

    The tyranny of the small things

    Grandiose plans get sabotaged by small things. Many years ago, I was involved in what was going to be a […]
    October 5th, 2017

    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 […]
    October 4th, 2017

    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 […]
    October 3rd, 2017

    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 […]
    October 2nd, 2017

    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 forcers to work on a Cause: green agenda, corporate […]
    October 1st, 2017

    End of Week Summary

    Happy Weekend to all our readers Today we are taking another look at activism and grass roots communications.  We hope […]
    September 30th, 2017

    Employee Engagement week ( 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 it’s […]
    September 29th, 2017

    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 […]
    September 28th, 2017

    Debunking the Myths of Employee Engagement: a land of Emperors with No Clothes. (1/7) The six models

    A while ago I posted my views on Employee Engagement. Since this has become an industry in its own right, and […]
    September 26th, 2017

    Will the last employee in Command and Control Inc/Ltd/Plc/SA please turn off the lights? (But have a good lantern with you)

    The new, emerging organizations, many people would agree, are more collaborative, more leadership-distributed, less top-down, with more levels of empowerment […]
    September 22nd, 2017

    The clouds move to follow me; the traffic lights go green when I move

    These two statements represent a form of magical thinking of the kind seen in ancient humans (clouds) and todays humans […]
    September 21st, 2017

    Build your own Employee Engagement argument for free. You can’t go wrong

    Here are three baskets full of concepts: Basket one: Working conditions, Flexibility at work, Pay and perks, Reward and recognition, […]
    September 19th, 2017

    This is a non-smoking flight

    If you are a frequent flight traveller, as I am for business reasons, you will be familiar with the standard […]
    September 18th, 2017

    The Rolling Luggage Paradox

    I owe this to Nassim Taleb (‘Fooled by Randomness’ (2007), ‘The Black Swan’ (2008), ‘Antifragile’ (2013). As a traveller of many years […]
    September 17th, 2017

    End of Week Summary

    Happy Weekend to all our Readers This week we have decided to take another look at some posts that focus […]
    September 16th, 2017

    The last thing I need is creativity

    Henry Ford is quoted to have said ‘why is it every time I ask for a pair of hands, they […]
    September 15th, 2017

    We are so good at crisis!

    Many clients have expressed this thought over the years: ‘Leandro, we are so good at crisis!’ And indeed they were!  […]
    September 14th, 2017

    3 versions of speed

    Andrew Grove, ex Intel This business about speed has its limits. Brains don’s speed up.  The exchange of ideas does […]
    September 13th, 2017

    ‘Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and it annoys the pig’

    Robert Anson Heinlein (1907-1988), American science fiction writer, was famous for his quotes. This is one.  Many uses and interpretations […]
    September 12th, 2017

    The three ‘magic’ words: transparency, clarity and fairness

    These three organizational ‘magic words’ manage to get mixed up a lot. It’s hard to believe because they are so […]
    September 11th, 2017

    Make your trade off(s) transparent

    In my experience, people can understand budget cuts, but there are several types of acceptance, leading to several levels of […]
    September 10th, 2017

    End of Week Summary

    Happy Weekend to all our Readers This week we have decided to take another look at some posts that encompass […]
    September 9th, 2017

    To learn how to create a culture of customer focus, use one

    Disclaimer: I don’t have shares in the company, or discounts, or commissions! No place I know can match Chateauform  (http://chateauform.com) […]
    September 8th, 2017

    I can prove anything in management thinking. Watch me!

    I can’t remember where I saw this. This is part of the point. It could have been anywhere. But I […]
    September 7th, 2017

    Never sell your time

    A friend of mind, a great artist, posted his latest challenge in Facebook.  He had presented a product idea to his […]
    September 6th, 2017

    When necessary use words

    Saint Francis of Assisi is a 13th Century figure revered as a Saint by the Catholic Church, and who founded […]
    September 5th, 2017

    Stop press: Candidate interviewed by authentic people

    A recent senior hire in a client company commented to me that the thing that most impressed her in the […]
    September 4th, 2017

    Empowerment: the muddle. The wrong conversation, until you start unpacking the concept and dismantling the house of buzzwords.

    The ‘expectations muddle’ of empowerment has different shapes and flavours: I expect you to do something but you don’t think […]
    September 3rd, 2017

    End of Week Summary

    Happy Weekend to all our Readers This week we have decided to take another look at some posts that encompass […]
    September 2nd, 2017

    ‘We have a communication problem’ is not always a good start.

    ‘Lack of communication’ or  ‘a communication problem’, is perhaps number one declared culprit in most of our troubled organizational life. […]
    September 2nd, 2017

    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 […]
    September 1st, 2017

    In the War for Attention within your company, you may need a communication ceasefire

    Our faith in communication is enormous. Why? Perhaps because we know well the problems associated with the lack of communication. […]
    August 31st, 2017

    ‘Nothing new under the sun’ ? Take off your sun glasses and stop the Valium

    Often you see people in organizations disillusioned with changes, considering themselves survivors of  yet another reorg, getting on with the […]
    August 30th, 2017

    ‘The Dunbar Number’ and ‘Mad Lean Numbers’: a question of the right critical mass of people to make things happen.

    Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist and psychologist, Oxford professor, has formulated that 150 was the “cognitive limit to the number of […]
    August 30th, 2017

    If you want to increase employee engagement and employee satisfaction, increase your company performance (yes, the order is not a typo)

    With the holidays coming to a close and everyone returning to ‘work mode’, here is a recent post on employee […]
    August 28th, 2017

    If you have anything to do with developing leaders don’t kid yourself. These ones had never gone, and one who didn’t want to be, is in.

    It’s 2017. Business as selfish, self-centered, a-social, ‘it’s-all-about-money-sorry’, is gone. So many people say. ‘Old fashioned views, we have moved […]
    August 27th, 2017

    End of week Summary – some thoughts on behavioural change & culture

    Happy Long Weekend to all our Readers This week we have decided to look at behaviour and culture, first with […]
    August 26th, 2017

    There must be a better way (I have good news)

    There must be a better way than having 200 consultants landing in my company and doing the stuff for me, […]
    August 25th, 2017

    Innovation? Great, but I am not in charge of it!

    Years ago I was talking to a client, a Senior VP in the company, about a project that had to […]
    August 23rd, 2017

    We need the aliens. Everybody needs aliens. Smart aliens who can ask questions and open Pandora boxes for us.

    The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person […]
    August 22nd, 2017

    ‘Jeff Bezos assures Amazon Employees that HR is working 100 Hours a week to address their complaints’ (that they are working 100 hours a week)

    Whatever he had in mind, it was communicated in an incredibly poor way. The prize for messaging goes to Amazon […]
    August 21st, 2017

    If you needed to remember only one classification of people: ‘external and internal locus of control’

    This is old Psychology lesson. ‘External locus of control’ translation: the problem is somewhere else, not me. It’s the environment, […]
    August 18th, 2017

    A behavioural epidemic can’t be fought from within. It needs a behavioural counter-epidemic to take over

    I have explored this theme before in my Daily Thoughts, but I feel compelled to go back! Behavioural issues, whether […]
    August 17th, 2017

    “There are two types of people in the world: those who can extrapolate from incomplete data sets”

    What type are you? How our mental models work is part of the Minimal Introspection, something we tend to overlook, […]
    August 16th, 2017

    Iconic leadership: the illusion of copying a one off

    Whilst the holidays roll on, here is a continuation of the leadership theme to consider before the summer is over  […]
    August 15th, 2017

    Last in my holiday readings. Here is the plot.

    A glitch in the system yesterday meant there was a duplication in the Daily Thoughts posts.  Please accept our apologies […]
    August 14th, 2017

    The 3 Grand Ds (‘Direction, Discovery and Destiny’), have also their 3 little personal and powerful ‘d’ sisters.

    Good Morning! The following article extends on our recent series on leadership this week, which we hope you enjoy In […]
    August 11th, 2017

    The best question is the one which has no answer

    Good Morning!  Here is the last of our series of three on Leadership this week. Recently, I keep finding myself […]
    August 10th, 2017

    It takes only one question to know about your model of leadership (and there is always an alternative question, just in case)

    Morning to you.  Here is our second post in a series of three on Leadership: Don’t define leadership for me. […]
    August 9th, 2017

    My contradictions are my friends, and they come with me as leader

    We are revisiting leadership this week.  This is one of a series of 3.   We praise people because of […]
    July 30th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Social Movements

    Happy weekend!   To finish our week of recaps on Social Movement related posts, we have selected 3 more favourites […]
    July 28th, 2017

    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, […]
    July 27th, 2017

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

    Continuing my revised 12 laws of social change at a scale. Very simple laws apply to any large scale change […]
    July 26th, 2017

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

    The second of this week’s revisited posts – this one was first published in June 2016 (check back tomorrow for part […]
    July 25th, 2017

    Hooked on tactics: from macro-social movements to inside the organization.

    As Dr Leandro Herrero is away, the Daily Thoughts will be taking a short “pause” this week. In the meantime, […]
    July 23rd, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Time to Review

    Happy weekend to all our readers!   This week we decided to look back over some old posts around organizational inflection […]
    July 20th, 2017

    Organizations have their own ‘People who like this, also like that’. Their ideology (idea-Logic) may be too crafted. (2/2)

    Part 2 of 2, first published November 2015 Yesterday I offered 10 types of people that challenge the status quo […]
    July 19th, 2017

    10 types of people who challenge the status quo in the organization. The art of dissenting (1/2)

    Part 1 of 2, First published in November 2015… Who challenges in organizations? People who have nothing to lose People […]
    July 17th, 2017

    Builders build, and build. Problem solvers solve, and need more problems. Choose.

    Unless we call ‘problem’ to any management activity, as many people do even without acknowledging it, and, in which case, […]
    July 15th, 2017

    The myth that everybody needs to be involved in ‘the change’

    This is an obvious desideratum. But very often it’s unrealistic. Conventional management approaches tell us that we have to communicate […]
    July 14th, 2017

    ‘Bottom up’ is not more workshops at the bottom. That is just a migration of the top-down to a lower level.

    Apologies for the delay in Daily Thoughts posts this week, we have been having some technical issues! We are now […]
    July 10th, 2017

    Micro-behaviours plus peer-to-peer equals social change dynamite

    Serious behavioural change? Start with micro-behaviours, then walk backwards to values, never the other way around. And bring peer-to-peer or […]
    July 9th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Behavioural Change

    Happy weekend to our readers!   Behavioural Change is pivotal to all of our work at The Chalfont Project and as […]
    July 7th, 2017

    Work-life balance: the on-off switch is broken, and they don’t make them any more.

    Forget work-life balance. It was a good concept that did a lot of good but has now retired. It cannot  any […]
    July 6th, 2017

    It has taken me so long to understand why they are so slow! They love ‘concrete’! (Ideas made of concrete?)

    I remember last year in the US. I had given them ideas, insights, reflections. I had shared experiences. I had […]
    July 5th, 2017

    The fastest and best way to build a creative culture: all revealed now

    The fastest and best way to build a creative culture is to have lots of creative people together. No kidding. […]
    July 3rd, 2017

    Accountability holes? Desert spaces? Orphan ideas? Buy the tent, occupy the street.

    Any organization has accountability holes, areas where nobody really owns the space. Sometimes these are true ‘grey areas’, sometimes are […]
    July 2nd, 2017

    End of Week Summary: 3 Favourites

    Happy weekend to all Daily Thoughts readers! Unbelievably we have have reached the end of another month, so it’s time […]
    July 1st, 2017

    The health-care-delivery Onion System does not need Big Consulting but small common sense. Maybe that’s the problem, it’s so uncommon.

    My experience of several health care delivery systems, both as a patient and as external consultant, is that they function […]
    June 30th, 2017

    There are Good Leaders, Excellent Leaders, and Gold Leaders.This is what Gold looks like

    The third post in my “Leadership Recap” series… Gold leadership, is the one above silver and bronze, that is. Sorry […]
    June 29th, 2017

    If leadership in organizations followed some ‘activism rules’; not standard management logic. Here is one rule.

    The second post in my “Leadership Recap” series… One of the key rules of activism (social, political, cause) is not […]
    June 28th, 2017

    The wolf pack and leadership : the lesson(s)

    Over the next few days, I will be revisiting some of my favourite posts on Leadership. I hope you enjoy […]
    June 27th, 2017

    The minority tyranny in the organization

    Nassim Taleb’s piece in Medium about ten months ago entitled The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority is […]
    June 26th, 2017

    Sharing thoughts, being carriers, and why there are no idiots anymore.

    I have described before the role of managers in many ways, often pointing to the risk of becoming ‘information traffic […]
    June 25th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: some thoughts on culture

    Happy weekend to all Daily Thoughts Readers, and apologies for the lack of summary last week! This week we have […]
    June 24th, 2017

    Feed back loop management strategy is not strategic. Excuse my language.

    Steve Richards’  ‘The Rise of the Outsiders: How  Mainstream Politics Lost Its Way’ (2017), has prompted me to reflect on […]
    June 21st, 2017

    There is something only you can do: be yourself. Everything else can be outsourced.

    There is something only you can live: your life. Socrates said that ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’. Being […]
    June 20th, 2017

    Mindfulness, the new solution. Oh, sorry, I forgot, what’s the problem?

    Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, a software millionaire, has discovered mindfulness. And has installed ‘mindfulness rooms’ in the Salesforce building […]
    June 16th, 2017

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

    I believe that one of the fundamental types of leadership in this Century is Backstage Leadership™. This is the art […]
    June 14th, 2017

    An audience is not a community. A community is not a team

    Below is a popular post from last year which we thought was worth revisiting – enjoy! Audiences receive messages, whether […]
    June 12th, 2017

    Organization Math Compilation.

    Admin note: We would like to apologize for the disruption in the past few days on the regular posts by Dr. […]
    June 7th, 2017

    Organization maths (3 of 3). Matthew Effects, and a summary

    In previous Daily Thoughts  (here and here) I wrote about some simple maths of the organization when understood as a […]
    June 5th, 2017

    There is a new world currency, with its traders and its own economy. And it’s not money.

    It’s hard to write after yet another terrorist attack just a few miles from my keyboard, and not to make […]
    June 3rd, 2017

    End of week Summary: 3 Favourites

    Happy weekend everyone! This is the Daily Thoughts support team calling! As we start another month, we take this opportunity […]
    June 2nd, 2017

    Organization’s arithmetic continues Part 2 (of 3). Sorry to be a pain but, how many have the real power?

    Yesterday Daily Thoughts started some Organization Mathematics for dummies. [Training is to addition what culture change is to multiplication] Believe […]
    June 1st, 2017

    Training is to addition what culture change is to multiplication. Organization’s arithmetic Part 1 (of 3)

    So if you have a ‘culture change programme’ that is based on adding more and more people going through a […]
    May 31st, 2017

    A thousand and one blogs. Now I need you

    Yes, I’ve reached that quota. They are all in the website and, incidentally, they are screaming for a new home […]
    May 30th, 2017

    Bullshit re-gaining academic recognition. Now, not a simple outburst but a formal topic of intellectual interest.

    English not being my mother tongue, I always take the liberty of using terms that polite English people don’t use […]
    May 26th, 2017

    Confidence, vulnerability, trust: my kingdom for a good theory. In the meantime, I’ll see these when I see these.

    Vulnerability is a luxury. The world may attack you, take advantage of you. You should measure the love of people […]
    May 25th, 2017

    Absurdity: the trade, and a couple of solutions

    Many years ago I met somebody at a conference. He was one of the speakers. He told us a great […]
    May 24th, 2017

    Manchester, we cry. Calling all competent ex-terrorists

    It’s just simply impossible to go business as usual after the Manchester events. Yet, the best thing we could do […]
    May 22nd, 2017

    The Disruption Religion misses the point: what will not change, and how we can capitalize on it. (2 of 2)

    In the previous Daily Thought I shared the simple idea that change management approaches often miss a big elephant in […]
    May 21st, 2017

    Change management most important announcement: this will not change (1 of 2)

    The change management industry has traditionally missed a big elephant in the room: in times of change, what is actually […]
    May 19th, 2017

    The glass-always-half-empty people never bother to fill it in

    Entire organizations are kept alive and kicking by the glass-half-full-people whilst the glass-half-empty-people spend their time feeling sorry for themselves. […]
    May 18th, 2017

    Weekly Summary: Organization Architecture

    Welcome to this week’s summary (a bit earlier than usual!)   Here at Daily Thoughts HQ and The Chalfont Project, […]
    May 15th, 2017

    Good leaders are a bit of corporate anthropologists, without the six months in Tanzania.

    Good leaders are a bit of corporate anthropologists. In fact, we are all exotics in the payroll. In my idiosyncratic, […]
    May 13th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Peer-to-peer influence

    Happy weekend to all our Daily Thoughts readers! This week, some of The Chalfont Project team have been at a […]
    May 12th, 2017

    The 4 hats of leadership: a review

    I am reviewing an old pots on our 4 Hats leadership. The trouble with the talking about leadership is that […]
    May 11th, 2017

    Talk like an organizational and cultural expert. Money back guarantee.

    Back in 2015 I wrote this. In the context of some recent conversations, I went to review the validity of […]
    May 9th, 2017

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

    Today I have presented my views on Employer Branding at a conference in Berlin. The trouble with this area is […]
    May 8th, 2017

    The best contribution that Neurosciences can make to Management and Leadership is to leave the room

    I have talked a lot in the past about the Neurobabble Fallacy. I know this makes many people uncomfortable. I […]
    May 7th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Social Movements

    Happy weekend to our readers!   Here at Daily Thoughts HQ, social movements are one of our favourite topics…so although […]
    May 4th, 2017

    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’. […]
    May 3rd, 2017

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

    Exercise: take a piece of paper and put names next to each category. Use your organization or an organization you […]
    May 2nd, 2017

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

    This almost one year old Daily Thought has done the rounds of social media many times over!  I replicate it […]
    April 30th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: 3 Favourites!

    Happy weekend Daily Thoughts Readers!   As we reach the end of another month, it seemed a good time to […]
    April 28th, 2017

    I have to be honest: look how many things around are wrong. But let’s be positive.

    My son, I’ll be honest with you. You can become a successful person or an alcoholic. I have to be […]
    April 27th, 2017

    Today’s Daily Thought is completely stolen. My best proud robbery in 10 lines.

    The original  is here: TED talk: Why the only future worth building includes everyone. By Pope Francis. “The Future You:” […]
    April 26th, 2017

    Many cultural change efforts fail out of a mathematical mistake

    Originally published a few months ago, I wanted to resend this as an opportunity to re-read and reflect. I hope […]
    April 25th, 2017

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

    A dangerous metastatic cancer in organizations ( no apologies for the strong language) is the equating of ‘team’ and ‘meeting’. […]
    April 24th, 2017

    Bezo’s Day One is a good place to be. Line stolen (again) with thanks

    Jeff Bezos. Amazon’s CEO, has been using the ‘Day One expression since the 1997 letter to shareholders. Now, it is […]
    April 22nd, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Trust

    Happy weekend to all our readers! Here at The Chalfont Project and Daily Thoughts HQ, we have been talking a […]
    April 20th, 2017

    The enemy is most likely to be within

    Looking outside is great. Looking inside is not a good idea. It leads to navel gazing. Nombrilisme in French, more […]
    April 19th, 2017

    12 Things your organization needs. The world circa 2017

    Deal with /learn to navigate in ambiguity and unpredictability. We don’t have good toolkits but any investment in at least […]
    April 16th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Storytelling

    Happy Easter to all our Daily Thoughts readers! We hope you are having an enjoyable weekend and that the sun […]
    April 11th, 2017

    Change management theories have only interpreted the organizational world. The point however is to actually change it.

    Since we all love conceptual frames, it is not surprising that in the area of ‘change management’ there are a […]
    April 10th, 2017

    The power of absurdity in fighting absurdity. We should use more of it.

    A couple of years ago, a client of mine in mainland continental Europe moved to new, pristine, shinny offices. Suddenly […]
    April 9th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Behavioural Change (part 2)

    Happy weekend! Welcome to part 2 of our look at behavioural change. For all the most recent posts on this […]
    April 7th, 2017

    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 […]
    April 6th, 2017

    Social Daily Thoughts? Two recent ones to discuss with somebody.

    Still in pause mode, here is a reflection from the Daily Thoughts Support team @ The Chalfont Project Two recent […]
    April 5th, 2017

    Daily Thoughts are in pause mode for a few days. But we are close to the 1000 Daily Thoughts in the library. It’s all yours. 7 ways to use them.

    Hi This is the Support Team  @ The Chalfont Project, behind the Daily Thoughts that Dr Leandro Herero writes personally. […]
    April 3rd, 2017

    Many reorganizations based upon ‘structural problems’ have a name and surname behind

    We often hear the need to put some order in Division A, or to restructure X and Y by putting […]
    April 2nd, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Behavioural Change

    Happy weekend to all our Daily Thoughts readers! This week at we have been focusing on Behaviours – after all, […]
    March 31st, 2017

    The Inevitability Principle is inevitably wrong. Leaders must avoid it.

    Years ago,  political scientist Francis Fukuyama wrote about the End of History. We all are converging to ‘the end’: liberal […]
    March 30th, 2017

    Employee satisfaction/engagement surveys: The Chicken Version. This is what they may look like with their eggs.

    Employee satisfaction/engagement surveys are a one way traffic systems. They are about what the company gives you, or does not. […]
    March 29th, 2017

    Don’t be prescriptive, just tell me what to do

    Or the curious phenomenon of not wanting something that you really want. Leadership is full of this stuff. We don’t […]
    March 27th, 2017

    What I really, really want?

    Somebody asked a group of senior IT people about to buy a whole new software infrastructure based on the ‘agile’ […]
    March 26th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Performance

    Hello Daily Thoughts Readers! We hope you are all having an enjoyable and relaxing weekend. This week we are thinking […]
    March 24th, 2017

    The Red Traffic Light Logic

    I used to have a paranoiac patient who tried to explain to me all the time her very special powers. […]
    March 23rd, 2017

    Change the world, maybe one world at a time. But with a plan.

    My recent Daily Thought (I’m now of an age when I only want to work with people who want to […]
    March 22nd, 2017

    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 […]
    March 21st, 2017

    I’m now of an age when I only want to work with people who want to change the world

    And still I get lots of people who raise eyebrows, people who look at me with a conspiracy-like smile (‘you […]
    March 20th, 2017

    ‘Our best days are yet to come. Our proudest moments are yet to be. Our most glorious achievements are just ahead’

    I am borrowing Ronald Reagan’s lines to remind ourselves that, as leaders in an organization, we must visualize a future. […]
    March 19th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Viral Change

    Happy Sunday to all Daily Thoughts readers! This week, The Chalfont Project team have been busy working onsite with one […]
    March 17th, 2017

    The 51 week problem.

    I got this insight from one of our Viral Change™  clients in the health care sector. We were talking about […]
    March 16th, 2017

    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 […]
    March 14th, 2017

    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 […]
    March 13th, 2017

    An enlightened top leadership is sometimes a fantastic alibi for a non-enlightened management to do whatever they want

    Nothing is more rewarding than having a CEO who says world-changing things in the news, and who produces bold, enlightened […]
    March 12th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: 3 of our Favourites!

    Hello from the Daily Thoughts team! Here at HQ, we can’t quite believe it’s March already – although we are enjoying […]
    March 10th, 2017

    From mess to clarity in two paths: the rational and the effective.

    Type One: This is messy. Accountabilities are not clear. The process sucks. Too many people involved. The issue to address […]
    March 9th, 2017

    Behave or I will 360 you

    Ever since glorious Michael O’Leary CEO of Ryanair was told to control himself and get close to the customer (I […]
    March 8th, 2017

    The real risk is not to be risky enough.

    Is this risky enough? The modern risk manager says. This question usually sits high in many our Viral Change™ programmes. […]
    March 7th, 2017

    The insurgent wins.

    The insurgent strategy may be called. It is applicable to politics and also to business. The insurgent does not play […]
    March 6th, 2017

    7 Rules to negotiate and lead ( and control your destiny). Number 5 is the tricky one.

    Control the conversation. Control the dialogue. Don’t accept a dialogue imposed to you. Common ground is OK, but only if […]
    March 5th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: 3 Daily Thoughts on Innovation

    Happy weekend from Daily Thoughts HQ! This week we wanted to send you three posts on Innovation, which we hope […]
    March 3rd, 2017

    Organizations: The Enemy Within (3/3). What the real enemies look like.

    My final topic of these 3 parts:  We have a full mythology of what can and can’t be done in […]
    March 1st, 2017

    Organizations: The Enemy Within (2/3). What the real enemies look like.

    How to look for the enemy? It is there. It is in the form of divisional silos that don’t talk […]
    February 27th, 2017

    Organizations: The Enemy Within (1/3). There is no ‘war on talent’

    When years ago McKinsey consultants produced a book entitled “The war for talent”, they successfully created the impression that talent […]
    February 26th, 2017

    End of week Summary: 3 on Leadership

    Happy weekend from Daily Thoughts support team at The Chalfont Project HQ! Leadership is always a popular subject and an […]
    February 25th, 2017

    Don’t trust armchair critics, reformers, and broadcasters of leadership who don’t know what a dry cleaner is

    Follow the ones who do, who move, who try, who push.  The ones who get dirty ( and send their […]
    February 24th, 2017

    ‘If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there’. But if you are stuck deciding, that place is worse than any other.

    The old saying, ‘if you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there’ (Lewis Carroll dixit) […]
    February 23rd, 2017

    It’s the journey, not the milk and honey.

    I am revisiting an old Daily Thought  of 3 years ago as a reflection of how see things from the […]
    February 22nd, 2017

    Rewarding collaboration by reinforcing individual contributions is management’s decaffeinated espresso: good taste, no effect.

    Can we work on the collective and reward the individualistic? Well, sure you can, it happens every day. But it’s […]
    February 21st, 2017

    Corporate brands are behavioural. They have always been, but are not often spoken about.

    Brand (identity), whether big brand or small brand, is a behavioural powerhouse. Strictly speaking I would say a Pull-House, because […]
    February 20th, 2017

    There is a colossal world replay of the Asch’ conformity experiment, and you are part of it.

    It’s 1950.  Solomon Eliot Asch (1907–1996), social psychologist, runs a series of social experiments. In one, he tells students that […]
    February 19th, 2017

    Sunday’s little refresh: Building Remarkable Organizations

    Hi, this is the support team of the Daily Thoughts on  Sunday’s duty! Refresh! This week we have been thinking […]
    February 17th, 2017

    We must resist the tripadvisorization of human relationships in the organization.

    Random, semi-connected, unfinished thoughts on this: A so called ‘culture of feedback’ is conceptually overrated. It has become one of […]
    February 16th, 2017

    Speak like an organizational expert. Actually to fool everybody is not that difficult

    A year and a half ago I published a list of 10 statements that can make you speak like an […]
    February 15th, 2017

    If you need to parachute help, send builders, not problem solvers

    Parachuting help is daily life in leadership of organizations. It may take the form of sending leaders from outside the […]
    February 14th, 2017

    What is your world view? Surely, this must be the new greeting. (Alt-greeting?)

    I propose this as the 2017 alternative to ‘How do you do?’ (correct English) or ‘Hey, how are you?, nice […]
    February 13th, 2017

    Corporate initiatives are born and die. And the reasons are seldom lack of goals.

    I can’t get rid of this theme in my head. I have written about it so many times that my […]
    February 12th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Backstage Leadership

    Hello from Daily Thoughts HQ! This week we have gathered together some of our favourite posts on Backstage Leadership – […]
    February 11th, 2017

    There is always room for uniqueness, even in the most standardised management process. What would it take?

    Uniqueness is a tough concept. I’ve got countless examples of clients pushing back  over the years. ‘Come on, this is […]
    February 9th, 2017

    The organizational structure vs what is really going on. Or the loneliness of an organizational chart.

    The snap short of the company as pictured in an organizational chart, is probably one of the most fictitious works […]
    February 8th, 2017

    Solidarity as a form of organizational culture is both a soft label and a secret weapon.

    At some people’s request, I am revising an old Daily Thoughts on ‘solidarity’ in the work place. Solidarity is one […]
    February 7th, 2017

    Five fast tracks to hopelessness in the organization. Little cure afterwards.

    Prevention is the only serious approach. The extra problem is that all these five tracks may be partially invisible, used […]
    February 3rd, 2017

    Clues to mobilize people inside the corporate tent, come from outside that tent.

    People reading these Daily Thoughts may be used to common themes, indeed. After all, I am not writing about nuclear […]
    February 2nd, 2017

    Where is home? A serious management question to employees

    I am (in) IT, I work for X (company) I work for X (company), I am in IT These are […]
    February 1st, 2017

    From protest to action, from voice to action. On TV and in the organization.

    Protests all over the world linked to a reason. Let’s take the Women’s march in January 21st In Washington. I […]
    January 31st, 2017

    Peer-to-Peer networks are the strongest force of action

    Peer-to-peer work, transversal, spontaneous or not, co-laboration, peer-to-peer influence, peer-to-peer activities of Viral Change™ champions or activists, all of this […]
    January 30th, 2017

    Don’t preach diversity, practice it. Start with mundane process rules.

    In the day when Tim Crook, Apple’s CEO, had to send a note to everybody in the company reminding them […]
    January 29th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Activism

    Happy weekend from Daily Thoughts HQ! This week’s summary focuses on Activism. Something we have been seeing a lot of […]
    January 28th, 2017

    ‘If’, the poem. (Management version circa. 2017)

    If instead of a company, you had and led a community. If instead of employees you had internal social activists. […]
    January 27th, 2017

    Thank God for management stereotypes. They solve many of our thinking problems (for lousy managers, that is)

    Let’s try this. Somebody who asks lots of questions becomes ‘a micro-manager’, which solves the problem of my questioning whether […]
    January 26th, 2017

    Thinking abdicated

    There are many situations in organization and corporate life when either the collective or others with authority solve our decision […]
    January 24th, 2017

    Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ was not in the script.

    Most of what is very good comes from discarding the standard or the good itself. The best scripts I have […]
    January 23rd, 2017

    Don’t preach diversity, practice it. Start with mundane process rules.

    In the day when Tim Crook, Apple’s CEO, had to send a note to everybody in the company reminding them […]
    January 23rd, 2017

    Corporate grammar could learn from Obama’s spelling guidelines

    “This isn’t a period, it’s a comma, in the continuing story that is America,” Obama said when leaving office. Well, […]
    January 22nd, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Peer-to-Peer Influence

    Hello and happy weekend from Daily Thoughts HQ! Welcome to our weekend summary post, this week focused on the power […]
    January 20th, 2017

    Along came a spider.

    (Friday 20.01.17 AD, 45th President of the USA, Inauguration Day) Conscious that this only makes sense to the Anglo-Saxon tribes […]
    January 19th, 2017

    In ‘people like us’ we trust, others must try harder, and leaders should go to the optometrist.

     Edelman Trust barometer is out again. Extraordinary piece of work. The highlights? Trust is at its lowest, everywhere. The media […]
    January 17th, 2017

    Is leadership so elusive? Or only in the hands of academics?

    A recent publication around the Mighty Davos meeting portrays the views of five expert academics on the topic of leadership […]
    January 16th, 2017

    Archaeologists usually don’t build houses. We have lots of archaeologists on the payroll

    Over years of consulting, I have realised that the best leaders I know, never talk about their previous companies, what […]
    January 15th, 2017

    End of Week Summary: Social Movements

    Hi! This is the Daily Thoughts Support Team speaking. We hope you are all having a good weekend! Welcome to  […]
    January 14th, 2017

    The Daily Me, information bubbles, and keeping sane.

    We naturally retreat to comfort zones. If we didn’t, we would not survive, physically or psychologically. We live in Confirmation […]
    January 13th, 2017

    Bold leadership pays off. It can also be killed by those who are highly paid to be professionally afraid

    Years ago, I persuaded a pharmaceutical client to make three bold moves in one: (1)   To create a New Product […]
    January 12th, 2017

    Obama’s farewell speech has calls to actions relevant to organizations. Most can be summarised: take charge, get involved.

    Obama’s farewell speech contains enough reflective materials, statements and arguments to spend hours of learning, no matter where you are […]
    January 11th, 2017

    Quick self-test on guts to call out non-compliance.

    I’d like you to do this quick exercise: Part 1. Read this edited version of a summary in a 2008 […]
    January 10th, 2017

    Thought leadership is making people think, or there is not much thought or leadership. Maybe journalistic leadership?

    True thought leadership is not about conveying new ideas, showing directions for innovation and offloading the latest trends. There is […]
    January 9th, 2017

    The only change worth changing, is people’s lives. Why are we afraid to say it?

    Business organizations have grown in a traditional alpha male model where emotions are weaknesses, irrationality is banned and ‘the human […]
    January 8th, 2017

    Week end Summary: Truth, Rumours and Dragon’s Den. A critical thinking trio

    Welcome to 2017 and the first of our weekly summary posts – this week focusing on “Critical Thinking”. We have […]
    January 7th, 2017

    Trust is (mostly) horizontal. Our organizations are (mostly) vertical. No wonder…

    ‘People like me’ is a category on its own right in the Edelman Trust Barometer. Multiple sets of data point […]
    January 6th, 2017

    Behaviours are the syntax of the organization. Values are the grammar. Your space in the world is the story.

    Your linguistic and behavi