Actually they should not. The concept of selling anything contains the notion that the prospective buyer has a choice. They can either buy something offered on sale or walk away. Organizational decisions, however, require COMPLIANCE not a choice. Gaining compliance is management’s job and… Read More ›
line management
MANAGING YOUR ATTENTION SPAN
In Michael Lewis’ book “The Big Short” he describes the listening style of a major character Steve Eisman thusly: “Eisman had a curious way of listening; he didn’t so much listen to what you were saying as subcontract to some… Read More ›
KNOWING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS TO ASK: CONNECTING THE DOTS
In her fascinating book entitled The Silo Effect; The Peril Of Expertise And The Promise Of Breaking Down Barriers author Gillian Tett– a social anthropologist, an award-winning journalist and a senior editor for the Financial Times — describes far too many… Read More ›
SPEAK IN PLAIN LANGUAGE
If you work for an organization of reasonable size you understand what I mean when I say that management often speaks in gobble-de-gook. This is a language that often turns management initiatives into alphabetical acronyms like ADIM (Advanced Data Information Management) or… Read More ›
THINKING AND ACTING FORWARD
Tradition is a very powerful and important thing. It is a glue that helps hold nations, societies, families and organizations together. Traditions are a source of pride, we celebrate them, we defend them, and we hold on to them because… Read More ›
THE MANAGER’S MAGIC FORMULA
On several occasions in this series of articles I have used the phrase “there is no magic formula” to make the point that a given situation or problem has many potential avenues of redress, none of which carries the guarantee… Read More ›
THE POWER OF AUTHENTICITY: THE COURAGE TO BE YOURSELF
There are countless books and articles dedicated to listing and exploring the qualities possessed by outstanding managers. However, I believe there is far too little attention paid to the one quality that creates an important degree of comfort we personally… Read More ›
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE: ORGANIZE AROUND NETWORKS
“Networks, — social, neural, physical, metaphorical — enable connectedness and connectedness changes everything. Networks compress distances and time, that concentration speeds up life, and that, in turn, creates sociological and economic change” (“The New Victorian Age”, by Om Malik, Fast Company, May 2015, P. 38…. Read More ›
THE NON-OPEN OPEN DOOR POLICY
No manager in my memory has ever claimed he or she had a “Non-Open Door Policy”. Claiming to have an open door policy is so automatic for most managers, announcing it rolls off their tongue soon after assuming almost any… Read More ›
A PLUG FOR TEAM MANAGEMENT
In their most basic form, organizational work units consist of four parts: (1) a named entity of some size (i.e. a team, branch, staff, division, etc); a service or mission focus for that unit; (3) an assemblage of human talent and skills to… Read More ›