It’s interesting to read Tolstoy on organizations. I’ve not gotten this far in War and Peace yet but I saw this mentioned in Senge’s The Fifth Discipline. Tolstoy has a amazing insight into things: you have to regret the loss of him leaving his art later in life.
![New York-to-Paris automobile race: [Automobile stuck in snow]](https://i0.wp.com/www.manasclerk.com/wpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/LoC-3b16110u-New-York-to-Paris-automobile-race-stuck-in-snow-c-1908-CROPa.jpg?fit=862%2C618&ssl=1)
Project Management vs. Getting Something Done
When Project Management goes sour, it does so because it becomes more about completing the items on the list rather than accomplishing the end goal. Software engineers have made this such a regular lament that you have to believe it has entered into folklore as a song cycle.
Right Fitting Work Builds Trust, Bad Fitting Work Makes Distrust
If you underemploy people as a society, you destroy social trust. Social trust increases agility because it reduces transaction costs and increases sharing of knowledge. Proper employmet builds trust. If you want a trust-filled company, then you must ensure that people have roles that fit their size. UPDATE 2005-March-04 If you have someone in a role that is too small …
Mine the Lower Ranks Now to Recruit Executives for the Impending Boomer Retirement Disaster
Baby boomer are about to retire, and when they do, will your management team still be there? Most of us have heard about the impending crises in Social Security and Medicare as the massive numbers of baby-boomers retire en masse over the next few years. We have begun to argue and debate this problem, both in public forums and in …
Rapid Talent Pool Evaluation for Merger and Acquisitions Using Requisite Organization
A new periodic feature. I wrote the following for another website. It describes the success that Glenn Mehltretter of PeopleFit has had in using Requiste Organization informed practices to create a better merger of two companies.
Mining Your Lower Ranks for Future Executives
Why is this such a new thought to people? One of the best places to find cheap high-potentials without all of the baggage of an MBA (CEOs who are MBA substantially underperform CEOs who rose through the ranks by a substantial margin) is under you nose. Well, actually it’s under you in the organisational chart. If I were a manager, …
The Ledger: “Geico Pays 24.2% In Worker Bonuses”
GEICO’s Lakeland employees received a profit-sharing bonus of 24.2 percent, up from 17.7 percent last year, employees told The Ledger.
Notes on W.L. Gore & Associates
Yes, there is a point to all of this. The key article is the business case study from Huizenga Business School at Nova Southeastern. Very handy. W.L. Gore & Associates is the fave of most postmodern organizational theorists, who see the company’s lack of official hierarchy as the true networked organization. I believe that Gore has a great culture, but …
Bureaucratic Hierarchy vs. Hierarchy
Scheidegger describes a distinction between “bureaucratic hierarchy” and “hierachy per se” within organizations which shows how people currently understand the term “bureaucracy”.
“Genevieve W. Gore, Co-Founder of W.L. Gore & Associates, Dies at 91”
I just saw that Genevieve W. Gore, co-founder of W.L. Gore & Associates, died 2005 January 20 at 91. Gore and her husband, Bill, created the company that bore his name. It is now a billion dollar company that ranks #2 on the Top 100 Companies To Work For list. It is a blow to the company, and to her …