Requisite Reading» Requisite Reading

Workplace Democracy, Participation and Power

Forrest Christian — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:19:41 +0000

From Organizational Participation: Myth and Reality by Frank Heller, Eugen Pusicć, George Strauss, and Bernhard Wilpert. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. 294 pp. These experts (Heller is from Tavistock) have a brief mention of Wilfred Brown's participative management at Glacier Metal Company.

In some individual cases the transition from autocracy to a variety of organizational forms where influence is more widely distributed can be achieved by deliberate intra-organizational processes, as for instance in the formation of the Scott Bader Commonwealth (Hoe 1978) or the democratization of the Glacier Metal Company (Jaques 1951; Wilfred Brown 1960). In the case of Scott Bader, the founder of the business was a devout Christian who, after a prolonged strike of his workforce. came to the conclusion that he no longer wished to be the sole owner. In the Commonwealth he created, every employee became formally a part owner and two potentially participative decision-making councils were set up. The Managing Director of the Glacier Metal Comapny, Wilfred Brown, was a very unusual person. He combined intellectual and socio-political interests (he was for a time a Minister in the British Labour Government with a very sympathetic attitude to social science which led him to engage a psychoanalytically oriented consultant, Elliot [sic] Jaques from the Tavistock Institute in London, to help introduce a participative-humanistic organization (Jaques 1951). These two well documented cases, while not unique, are examples of substantial structural and to a lesser extent behavioural changes consequent on a policy decision by a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In both cases the CEO stayed on the scene for sufficiently long to consolidate the structural changes and in both cases these changes survived the death of the founder for a number of years. [145-6]

Not All Organizations Should Be Appreciated

Forrest Christian — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:08:26 +0000

A few years ago, I was talking with Naga Kumar, who had been a colleague of David Cooperrider at Case Western when he was developing Appreciative Inquiry. He told me that while he like and used a lot of AI…

Why Requisite Organization Will Not Survive

Forrest Christian — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:49:23 +0000

I’ve been wondering lately if Requisite Organization (the ideas formulated by Elliott Jaques) will survive for much longer. The GO Society identified several years ago that most of their members were “gray” — retirees or close to retirement age —…

Get or Keep that Job You’re Over-Qualified For

Forrest Christian — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 23:47:02 +0000

Let’s take another gander at how a hidden high potential can either get or stay in a that low-level job. It’s…

Software Architecture: There Is No One Right Way

Forrest Christian — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:13:17 +0000

I spent some time perusing the programming stacks at Seattle’s main library today, and skimmed through some texts on software architecture. Perhaps the most interesting was 97 Things Every Software Architect Should…

Getting that low-level job as a Hidden High Potential

Forrest Christian — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:09:41 +0000

Sometimes when you've been the Hidden part of "Hidden High Potential" for way too long, you just want to find something that pays the bills. You look for a job, any job. This is hard to do, even when times are good. When times are hard, it seems impossible. Just ask Julie Neidlinger. She knows all about how hard it is to get a job when you're grossly overqualified. The story she tells is an excellent example, because it's such a common one to so many of you Hidden High Potentials. She went looking for an office job in the state with the lowest unemployment rates in the nation, lower than my region had during the good times.

I was looking for something Monday through Friday, normal business hours, regular paycheck, nothing retail or selling — I just want to be able to put aside money and rebuild my savings. For some reason, in this type of work, I am not hireable. I do not know why.

So I'm going to tell her, and give some hints as to how she might be able to pull this off, and close with the core truths that are more useful.

Seattle!

Forrest Christian — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 19:32:32 +0000

For those of you who care, I’m spending the summer in Seattle at the behest of a fellow (much larger) investor in a Green startup up in Vancouver. He thinks it’s in the best interest of both the startup and…

That Boring Job Really Could Be the Death of You

Forrest Christian — Mon, 17 May 2010 19:17:11 +0000

Taking years off her life.
Photo by Adam Jones adamjones.freeservers.com.

Research published last month in the International Journal of Epidemiology…

Is The Group Scapegoating You?

Forrest Christian — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:57:14 +0000

You have no idea what’s in store for you. Smiling goat via George Chernilevsky

Teams that encounter frustrating problems as

…

The latest Secret Rules of Career Success Newsletter is on its way

Forrest Christian — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:28:57 +0000

If you are a subscriber, the latest Secret Rules of Career Success newsletter deals with how your unconventional paths to achieving more than other people can actually destroy your career and even get you fired. It’s a big topic, so…