Innovation, Collaboration, Learning & Leadership
Safety is a common conversation, explicitly or implicitly, in the halls of middle management. Change agents among the ranks of middle managers experience conversations about the need for safety and the dangers of change on a daily basis. Safety is the focus because there are many for whom safety means the preservation of status, roles … Continue reading From Safety to Safer: Middle Management’s Dangerous Transition
Safety is a common conversation, explicitly or implicitly, in the halls of middle management. Change agents among the ranks of middle managers experience conversations about the need for safety and the dangers of change on a daily basis. Safety is the focus because there are many for whom safety means the preservation of status, roles … Continue reading From Safety to Safer: Middle Management’s Dangerous Transition
Management practice is influenced heavily by hierarchy, tradition and risk aversion. As a result our practice as managers lags the changes in culture in the society around us. Leaders need to work to close the gap between management practice and social expectations. Management Practice is a Lagging Indicator The way we manage our organisations is … Continue reading Management Practice Lags Culture
Middle managers like to complain about being squeezed by pressures from above and below. Their organisations love to blame them for all the ills in the place. Middle managers have two great advantages that they can use to drive change: They can place themselves in the heart of the network of their organisations. They have … Continue reading Middle Managers need to use their Networks and Authority
A common topic of debate in the Responsive Organization movement is whether an organization can become responsive or it must be born that way. Undoubtedly many of the leading case studies of future of work organizations are organizations created or rebirthed from near death by charismatic founders. Some use this as evidence that the elements … Continue reading Leadership in Transformation
Dear CEO Re: The Last Thing We Need is an Enterprise Social Network The purpose of this email is to explain why the last thing we need is an enterprise social network. This email is in response to the conversation about enterprise social networking in the executive leadership meeting yesterday. We thought it best to … Continue reading The Last Thing We Need is an Enterprise Social Network
Man in Black: I can’t afford to make exceptions. Once word leaks out that a pirate has gone soft, people begin to disobey you, and then it’s nothing but work, work, work all the time. – From the film ‘The Princess Bride’ Many middle managers have the Dread Pirate Roberts Problem. Changing our organisations … Continue reading The Dread Pirate Roberts Problem
A lot of magic is ascribed to CXO titles. Often there is more real influence in other parts of the network, like middle management. No matter what you think of the CXO roles, one CXO role is critical: The Chief Me Officer. The functions of a Chief Me Officer are as follows: Discover your personal … Continue reading From CMeO to CUsO
Our Robot Overlords Confirming to an algorithm removes our human individuality and uniqueness. It also makes us more easily replaced by an extension of the algorithm. ‘How would you feel being managed by an algorithm?’ I was asked this question few years back on a panel for the University of Sydney’s Digital Disruption Research Group. … Continue reading Conforming to the Algorithm
No amount of love, collective energy or human potential is going to change our work for the better, if it ignores these fundamental dynamics of power.