Wilfred Brown film series: Excerpt

Forrest ChristianManaging, Organizations, Wilfred Brown Leave a Comment

I’ve been talking about how Wilfred Brown, management (heck, all-round) genius, made this series of films in the 1970s. Here’s an excerpt I pulled from the first film. This gives you a flavor of the series. The information is fascinating, especially when you know that Brown actually implemented these ideas at Glacier Metal Company.

Plus you get to hear Mr. Brown say “hear-ar-ky”.

ADLER typewriter Model n°7 (Frankfurt / Germany). Unknown model date (probably ~1930/40). By Dake

Extending Levels of Work With New Management Applications

Forrest Christianrequisite organization, Warren Kinston 6 Comments

After Glenn Mehltretter’s comments about Kinston and Rowbottom’s article from 1990, I went and got copies, OCRed them, and got Warren’s permission to post them here. This is the first, from 1989. They are useful articles and should be in someone’s database but this journal has never been electronically archived anywhere that I could find. Warren has developed these articles …

ADLER typewriter Model n°7 (Frankfurt / Germany). Unknown model date (probably ~1930/40). By Dake

Pragmatist Meets Structuralist: A Web Example

Forrest ChristianTheory, Warren Kinston 2 Comments

Here’s a good example of what someone who is a structuralist sounds like when talking to a pragmatist, for those who’ve been following my discussions of Warren Kinston’s and Jimmy Algie’s Seven Languages of Achievement (aka the Seven Decision Languages). The manager, like most managers, is a pragmatist working in a pragmatist company. “Get ‘er done” is the motto. The …

Luc Hoebeke Conversation: Don't Miss "A really high end conversation"

Forrest ChristianManaging Leave a Comment

I sent out a short announcement to some of my Flemish colleagues about the audio of my conversation with the Belgian management guru, Luc Hoebeke. Vincent gave back a brief review: A really high end conversation. Very intellectual guy: he looks to me like an economic/organisational philosopher, even a bit of an utopian/anarchist socialist (breaking the rules and the trust …

A Conversation with Luc Hoebeke: Part 2

Forrest ChristianManaging, podcast Leave a Comment

Here’s part two of my interview with Luc Hoebeke, the Belgian management thinker and author of Making Work Systems Better: A Practitioners Guide. Hoebeke (pronounced, more or less, “HOO-bay-kuh”) is a RO-heretic: he likes General Theory of Bureaucracy and the original work, but thinks pretty poorly of Requisite Organization. See Part 1 for his particular departures.

Benito Mussolini conciona la folla in Piazza Duomo a Milano, nel maggio 1930-Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-09844 / CC-BY-SA

Is Your Boss Really Evil or Simply Overwhelmed?

Forrest ChristianCareers, Underachievers Leave a Comment

You boss might not be Benito Mussolini like you think, regardless of how much he resembles him when he lectures the team. I have really enjoyed Mary’s comments on these thoughts on how underachievers (overachievers) can get right fitting work. About my last post (“Knowing Who You Are Can Get You Out of Underachievement“, she wrote: When I read “Underachievers, …

Vance, a Trapper Boy, 15 years old. Has trapped for several years in a West Va. Coal mine. $.75 a day for 10 hours work. All he does is to open and shut this door: most of the time he sits here idle, waiting for the cars to come. On account of the intense darkness in the mine, the hieroglyphics on the door were not visible until plate was developed. Location: West Virginia. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine, 1908 September.

Corporations Exist To Stifle Innovation, Not Encourage It

Forrest ChristianUncategorized Leave a Comment

There seems to be an attitude in most of the innovation & creativity discussions that innovation is always good. At least the shareholders, management, employees and others may not want the innovation that results. Remember that unions were innovations. Also, within cultures innovation is rarely welcome. Al-Qaeda is an innovative organizational form and many of their attacks have been extremely …