Requisite Writing

Because you are the killer app.

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Entries from May 2008

Why You Have To Buy Coffee

May 30th, 2008 · No Comments

by Peewack & Julius Schorzman
The last time I made a pass at the forthcoming book on how to get your career out of its rut, I took a part-time (36 hr/wk) job at a US retailer of consumer electronics. I learned a great deal there about theft and sales, but I also noticed something [...]

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Tags: Coaching · Overachievers · Underachievers

Alistair Mant speaks on Wilfred Brown and Industrial Democracy

May 29th, 2008 · No Comments

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Alistair Mant, Chairman, Socio-technical Study Group, spoke at the 2005 GO Society Conference in Toronto about his experiences and work with Wilfred Brown, the chairman of Glacier Metal Company, where the ideas about work levels were originally worked out. Mant makes the point that well before Dr. Jaques and his Tavistock [...]

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Tags: Elliott Jaques · Wilfred Brown · requisite organization

Wilfred Brown’s Ideas Rejected By Labour’s Socialisation of Industries Committee

May 29th, 2008 · No Comments

As I continue to attempt to understand the history of the Glacier Project, I’ve been reading about Wilfred Brown’s work in there political sphere to gain some of this. Because he was a socialist and socialism dominated the political landscape of the UK during this time, it is probably hard to separate out.
Nick [...]

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Tags: Wilfred Brown

Isabel Menzies Lyth: 1917-2008

May 29th, 2008 · 1 Comment

I just read about the death of Isabel Menzies. She was a major force for good in healthcare organization and a long-time member of the Tavistock Institute. She died in February of this year.
The Independent carried an obituary of Menzies Lyth.

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Tags: Theory

The Bros. Heath Explain Incentive Pay Structures

May 23rd, 2008 · 3 Comments

In January, I scored a copy of the Bros. Heath’s Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die as I was working with an Australian start-up. I commend their book in its entirety — very useful, and it explains in clear language (that I wish I had come up with) why I write [...]

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Tags: Managing · Motivation

How Chris Saved the Training In Less Than Two Days (a story for the weekend)

May 23rd, 2008 · No Comments

by Michael Baranovsky (GDL 1.2)
Have you ever sat in one of those meetings where it seemed like the jackals were circling one of their own injured? I was sitting in a meeting with the department heads of an IT outsource account in Chicago. We had just finished listening to a dry run of some [...]

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Tags: Organizations

Reading More About Work Levels and You

May 21st, 2008 · No Comments

by Ziko-C. GNU Doc License 1.2
Okay, okay: you have questions. You have no idea what I just said. It was just too confusing. Don’t fret too much: I’ll be continuing to try and explain what I mean and why it’s so important for underachievers. (Because it explains a whole lot.)
If you can’t wait and [...]

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Tags: Careers · Coaching · Overachievers · Underachievers

Luc Hoebeke on Koldo Saratxaga, IRIZAR and Pride in Your Work

May 21st, 2008 · No Comments

A little teaser for the forthcoming Part 2 of my conversation with Luc Hoebeke, the Belgian organizational expert and author of Making Work Systems Better: A Practitioner’s Guide. In this 30-second excerpt, Hoebeke talks about the most important thing Koldo Saratxaga did to help IRIZAR create a high-performance, team-focused work culture.
If you’re not Spanish [...]

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Tags: Managing · Motivation · podcast

ANN: Now read us on your iPhone & Blackberry, too!

May 19th, 2008 · No Comments

I’ve implemented a little addon that will let you read Requisite Writing on your iPhone, Blackberry or other mobile device. I’ve been delighted by how it works on my Blackberry Curve. If you have an iPhone, would you consider testing out this page’s permalink and leave a comment below?
The addon is “Wordpress PDA & iPhone [...]

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Tags: Change

Working Where You Don’t Fit Can Make You Sick

May 19th, 2008 · No Comments

by Hamed Saber. Atrribution License
Let’s return to something Mary wrote in a comment about my post, “Knowing Who You Are Can Get You Out of Underachievement“:

When I read “Underachievers, Are You Simply Out of Flow” and then Andrew Olivier’s “Our Working Journey and Stress”, I could hardly believe my eyes. I diagnosed myself immediately.
I [...]

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Tags: Careers · Coaching · Overachievers · Underachievers