John C. Maxwell provides a great explanation, albeit unknowingly, of what we call “The Theory of Real Boss” in “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”.
How Hope Breeds Success
People who have always been fully employed often pooh-pooh the idea that simply being unemployed can have detrimental effects on people, especially men. Even though they have never struggled to find work, usually moving seamlessly from one position to another, they have strong opinions on the laziness of the long-term unemployed. Studies in unemployment show how a long-drawn-out idleness affects …
The Problem of “Universal” Speech
In this post, I’d like to continue a thread about “Universals”, or ideas that are higher than Strata 5-8’s (“abstract conceptual”). I will go over some of the previous discussion, talk about the problems of 6th Order communication and maybe make a point or two. If you are coming to this site from outside the theoretical framework, you may want …
Requisite Organization in Software Development & Information Technology
Software development groups almost always form a shadow hierarchy or pecking order of merit. Elliott Jaques’s theory of Requisite Organization explains why.
Performance Reviews and Pay
Let me come clean: I have never had a good experience in any formal performance review. I tend towards the “tell me what you want me to do and let me do it” mindset. Whenever I have managed employees, I have always believed that if you didn’t know how you were doing at least every week, I wasn’t doing my …
Strengthening Hierarchy from the Bottom Up
The challenge with hierarchy is balancing position power with inclusion. We’ve been on an “Engagement Journey” for quite a while, one that is aimed at imparting cultural change and resulting in a highly engaged workforce. We might even conclude that although imperfect, many of the right things are being done. Engagement is being built with managerial systems. There are no …
Thomas Friedman’s Flat World
There are two recent articles by Thomas Friedman, who did the recent PBS series on outsourcing to India. He’s also written a book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, which is due out soon. Friedman’s article in the New York Times Magazine (It’s a Flat World After All”) is interesting. The article has been archived …
Paul Graham on Startups
Paul Graham has written his thoughts on what it takes to startup a sustainable company. It’s worth reading, as is a good deal of his writings. Graham’s an interesting guy: trained as a painter in Italy with a PhD in CompSci from Harvard.
India and China in pact
J sent me this article on the improving relations between China and India. When I went to the colloquiom on leading multi-cultural change (new associate coming out of that; stay tuned for an announcement here), I heard an earful on this from the Indians present. India needs stable relations with China simply because of proximity. The fact that the United …
The mobile worker: Curse or blessing? (guest post)
The following article is reproduced with permission from Paul Tremlett, President of COREinternational and was published in the Canadian HR Reporter. Publish Date: February 28, 2005 You might not like career development costs for employees whose allegiance is fleeting — but that’s the labour market if you expect to attract top performers By Paul Tremlett and Ginty Burns There was …