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 …
Secret Rules of Career Success seminar series
For the past few weeks I’ve been telling you that I am developing a new program to help Hidden High Potentials discover who they are and find fulfilling work and lives. I’m proud to announce the first part of that program, The Secret Rules for Career Success. Because you are reading Requisite Writings right now, I want to give you …
Restoring Discretion: The Reason for the US Army's New Air Reconnaissance Unit
The New York Times reports Sunday that the US Army has created its own aerial surveillance unit because they weren’t able to get the service levels they wanted out of the unmanned Predator operations run by the US Air Force. It’s happening because the new unmanned systems have changed where the discretion for the reconn should lie. From NYT: In …
Lord Wilfred Brown, Island Owner
As I’m cleaning up stray references to Wilfred Brown in Wikipedia, I came upon an unsupported reference to his ownership of Eilean Rìgh, a smallish island off the coast of Argyll in western Scotland. Nothing really to say here, just noting that it’s the only reference to this important figure.
Even in the Library, Biggest Person Takes the Heat
Did you know that if you have more capacity to do work than the people you work with, they’ll oftentimes respond by addressing things to you even though you’re not the boss? I’m busy putting the finishing touches on the launch of a new program Overachievers or Adult Underachievers, people who are not doing a role that is big enough …
Transcript of "Here Comes the Boss" on Wilfred Brown
The BBC have taken down the “Here Comes the Boss” series by Patrick Wright, mentioned by Ken Craddock in his excellent bibliography on Requisite Organization related writings. I’ve been trying to track down a copy for weeks now. And then I remembered: the Internet Archive Wayback Machine! They have collected the transcripts of the series. Not as good as having …
No Flooding at Requisite Writing Central
As some of you probably know, some of my partners have been washed out in Cedar Rapids and southern Indiana. Thus far we at The Manasclerk Company headquarters have been able to escape these 500-year rainfall events here in Indiana’s North End. But I’ve still been very busy with a new program that I’m rolling out. Stay tuned.
Want Clarity About Work? Start By Defining Terms
I have decided to take the advice I gave Paul Holmström at Management Unplugged, I’m posting my answers to questions posed elsewhere. Recently, Jim Heskett of Harvard Business School asked “Why Don’t Managers Think Deeply?” If you want to see why Wilfred Brown kept talking about need to define terms like “manager”, you could do a lot worse than reading …
Are You Trying to Succeed Where You Can’t?
Some time ago, I was complaining to my own executive coach about how I wasn’t getting rich when he leaned in, looked me straight in the eye, and shot the truth right to the heart of it all: “Maybe you’re not getting all that because you don’t want it” “You’re a smart guy,” he said. “If you wanted to be …
A Conversation with Luc Hoebeke: Part 2
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.