Thought provokers
Browse and explore the various articles below...
Organisational structures do not exist – they are a myth!
OK, I can hear the squeals of anguish and dissent. “Of course organisational structures exist” I hear people say. We have organisations and we create structures and we do organisational design to place people within those structures. We spend time and...
The Psychology of Management: Taking the long view
I am quite interested in the psychology of management because I think we tend to adopt psychological models of how management works, and how change happens, without necessarily questioning their assumptions and continued validity, or applicability. I also find that...Purpose and meaning at work, in business and in organisations
I was working with a client who, like many organisations, was getting tangled up in definitions of purpose and mission. What it revelaed was the importance of ‘Meaning’ at work, and meaningful work, today. This article untangles purpose and mission, but...Do 9 out of 10 strategies really fail? I don’t think so!
In this article we look at a really common statistic that was popularised with Norton & Kaplan’s approach: the “statistic” that 9 out of 10 of business strategies fail due to poor execution. Now, I have never believed it. It is attributed to...
Does “Culture eat Strategy”? Really? What is the alternative?
You have probably heard the expression, either as “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” or “Culture eats strategy for lunch”. In essence what they are saying is that the culture of the organisation is stronger than the strategy and the planned...The “ten thousand and six words problem.”
Ever sat in an organisation wondering about the nicely framed values and mission statements on the walls. Welcome to “The ten thousand and six words problem”. Just about every organisation has them, on their walls, in their corporate brochures and on...
We manage by absorbing friction – and building up heat!
What role do, and should, our management systems play in protecting from, and connecting our organisations to, the volatility and uncertainty of the outside world? At a recent management presentation I suggested that the way we manage is designed to absorb friction. ...
