What’s taking so long! Slow progress on the evolution of Leadership.
I’ve been reading a book given to me recently at…
management
Can we break through the inertia that plagues IT-change?
You’re on the Titanic. The engineers are shouting: “The bulkheads are too low! The rudder is too small! There aren’t enough life boats!”. The sailors mumble: “It has been cold, there will be many more icebergs than usual and further south”. The owners …
Cohesion Forces and Tools
This article is part of the series on Autonomy and Cohesion. It is the second part of the basic overview of the balance. If you haven’t read the previous part, I’d recommend doing so before reading further. Cohesion forces Liquids and solids are in those states because there are cohesion forces bonding the molecules together. The main […]
Managing a Remote Team with the Monday Report
Eight years ago in April 2012, I wrote a post about using the Monday Report approach to help me manage a large team at the British Columbia Institute of Technology. I think implementing the Monday Report will help you in these Coronavirus COVID-19 rem…
Exploitation and Exploration
I love going to jazz festivals. Listening to good jazz at home is enjoyable, but there is something special about the electricity that sparks during a live performance. And it’s not the same when you listen to a recording of a concert. It is completely different when you are actually there, immersed, experiencing directly with […]
Productive Organisational Paradoxes
Here are the slides from my talk at the SCiO open day in London earlier this year. You can watch them static and download the slide-deck from here, or play it with animations below. Related posts: SASSY Architecture From Distinction to Value and Back What can Social Systems Theory bring to the VSM? QUTE: Enterprise […]
What can Social Systems Theory bring to the VSM?
In 2015, when the Metaphorum was in Hull, I tried to kick off a discussion about potential contributions from cognitive science, and particularly from the Enactive school. I shared some insights and hinted at other possibilities. This year the Metaphorum conference was in Germany for the first time. It was organised by Mark Lambertz and hosted by […]
Human Resources?
People are valuable. That’s why they have an established status as human resources in organizations. When they are more valuable, they are even called assets. Assets “People are our greatest asset!” You’ve probably heard that a lot. If not, try “People are our * asset” in Google, and you’ll get over 300 million results. “Greatest” […]
Notes on Stability-Diversity
To be healthy, organisations – like human beings – have to operate in balance. Going temporarily out of balance is OK, but if this goes on for too long, it’s dangerous. Just like riding a bike, the balance is the minimum organisations need to be able to move forward. What kinds of things need to […]
Finding, Acquiring and Retaining Talent
The session format had a panel of HR and Talent Recruitment leaders answering questions and providing guidance on the current employment market. The questions posed were very interesting focusing on the fundamental challenges Technology Leaders face …
QUTE: Enterprise Space and Time
Here’s another pair of glasses with which to look at organisations. It can be used either together with the Essential Balances or with the Productive Paradoxes, or on its own. For those new to my “glasses” metaphor, here’s a quick intro. The Glasses Metaphor As I’m sceptical about the usefulness of methodologies, frameworks and best […]
Productive Paradoxes in Projects
In 2011, when I started this blog, I wanted it to be a place for reading and as such the initial theme was just a bit busier than this one. I didn’t go that far, but you still don’t see categories, tag clouds, my Twitter feed and so on. It was only recently that I […]