Mohit Kishore, an always interesting perspective, published an article in The Hindu Business Line — “Leaderless groups – a case against hierarchy“. (He republished it in his blog.) It’s interesting in light of some of our recent discussions, especially at Toronto. A few thoughts and responses to it. Many of the cases that he cites are indeed the cases that …
Global Organization Design Conference 2007: highly recommened
The bi-annual Global Organization Design Conference is coming up in Toronto, July 16-19. Subtitled “Designing Organizations for Value-Creation, Sustainability, and Social Well-Being”, the conference proved to be of value to me two years ago. The bullshit level is amazingly low for conference. People are there who are using the theory in their own organizations, from large multinationals to entrepreneurial operations …
High-Moders and Hierachies
Although I’ve been called away these past few weeks with a family emergency, I’ve been thinking about the points that Christine Baker of Requisite Development raises in her recent comments on “Writing a Level-3 CV” on the careers of high-moders. She points out that options today are greater for them than in the past: There is another point to make …
Structured Process vs. Drift: A Question of Worklevel?
Claudio Ciborra, who unfortunately died too early recently, left a rich quantity and breadth of writings on information systems from a sociological perspective. Here I look at one of thisClaudio Ciborra. 2002. “Design, Kairos and Affection“. From Managing as Designing: Position Papers [?], Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University. … if speed is the main characteristic of this activity, then in …
!["Bessemer converter (iron into steel) Allegheny Ludlum Steel e Corp Brackenridge, Pa (LOC)" [crop]. Ca. 1940. Alfred T. Palmer via Library of Congress](https://i0.wp.com/www.manasclerk.com/wpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/1a35063u-Bessemer-converter-iron-into-steel-Allegheny-Ludlum-Steel-e-Corp-Brackenridge-Pa-LOC-1600x995.jpg?fit=862%2C536&ssl=1)
Use Time Spans Instead of “Strategic”, “Long-term”, “Short-term”, etc.
One thing that I have learned: never use the words “strategic” or “tactical”. Much less such terrors as “long-term” or “short-term”. The problem is that these are relative terms. What is strategic in one context is tactical in another.
Communicating at the Right Level
I’m helping out a European bank with some communications work. I know that the secret will be to communicate at the right level. The right level for the role, sure, but also the right level for certain people. It’ll be tough. I know that in the meetings to communicate the vision across and down the organization’s organizations (it’s a bank …
Vaill on High-performing Systems
A second kind of evidence to suggest that the evolving success of the system has a powerful developmental effect on the leadership comes from the way members of high-performing systems talk about the early formative period of the system. There are consistent statements such as, “We had no idea things would turn out like this”; “In the early years, we …
Management Books by Lord Brown Now Free and Online!
Just to let y’all know: the GO Society has finally put up the books by Wilfred Lord Brown, Minister of Health and CEO of Glacier Metals. Lord Brown had a different take on the work that Jaques did for him, and it’s interesting to read an owner’s accounts of how to run a business. The books now online include some …
“RadioShack isn’t about anything!” How to turn it around and make millions
What’s wrong with RadioShack? I asked my middle-schoolers on Sunday what they thought about RadioShack. Josh, one of my gadget-happy boys, seem to understand what RadioShack executives don’t. “RadioShack isn’t about anything,” he said. “I mean, are they a cellphone company? Parts? You just don’t know what they’re about. They never have anything you want, either. “And,” he added, “the …
Your Company’s Manifest, Assumed, Extant and Requisite Organizations
I was looking up something else (the use of books of hours in medieval church practice, to be honest) and somehow came across Bennis’s description of the “requisite” organization from the mid-1980s. I wondered if the term, which seemed to match Dr. Jaques’s use, was his own or something borrowed. Turns out it’s borrowed (see the quotation below). But I …