by Phil Jones | Updated 2 Mar, 2018 | Agile & learning organisations
Many organisations want to be agile. The problem is that agility requires two earlier steps. You can have an agile organisation, but if that agility is never exploited, then it is a wasted resource. Organisational agility is in fact a three-part problem (and...
by Phil Jones | Updated 20 Jun, 2018 | Thought provokers
Boy was I getting frustrated! I was reading the latest version of ISO9000:2015 and the link it says organisations should establish between its quality management system and the organisation’s strategic direction. As I spend all my time helping clients with...
by Phil Jones | Updated 30 Jul, 2018 | Communicating Strategy: The Book, Socialising strategy
After my book ‘Communicating Strategy’ was published, I realised I should have called it ‘Socialising Strategy’. Getting strategy into day to day conversation and decision making When I wrote Communicating Strategy, I was trying to get across...
by Phil Jones | Updated 4 Jan, 2018 | Organisations are Social systems
In this article, I explore the idea of, metaphorical, dark matter and dark energy, in organisational success and organisational performance. Jim Collins, (Author of Good to Great and Built to last) suggests we have missed this important dark matter. I offer ways you...
by Phil Jones | Updated 24 Oct, 2017 | Organisations are Social systems, Paradigm shifts, Thought provokers
Whilst organisations appear to be organised, social systems emerge naturally and connect, despite organisational structures and boundaries. In reality, we need to view and understand our Organisations as Social systems. If we forget that we miss how people, human...
by Phil Jones | Updated 25 Apr, 2017 | World of Management & Business
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: in reality a discourse on quality. I was doubly disappointed to hear that Robert M Pirsig had died today. First because his book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance was one of the most influential that I read as a teen...
by Phil Jones | Updated 22 Feb, 2018 | Strategic planning
One of the things I find as a consultant is the need to discuss with the client “The presenting problem”, and then to explore, to diagnose to find out what actually is the deeper, underlying problem. Only when you find and address that, do you have a...
by Phil Jones | Updated 4 Jul, 2017 | 4G Balanced Scorecard, Organisations are Social systems
Upside down organisation charts are re-drawn with a purpose: to invite executives to think differently about their organisation and their role. This article explains how to draw them upside down (it is not simply turned upside down) and how the changed perspective...
by Phil Jones | Updated 26 Oct, 2017 | Managing uncertainty & risk, Quality of conversation
You would not fly a plane or drive a car that was untested – so why do we sometimes try to execute untested strategies? There are lots of ways to test a business strategy and check its validity. Recently, I was running a strategy workshop for an Executive team...