Organize for Complexity, part I+II - Special Edition PaperNiels Pflaeging
The future of the Organization.
Special Edition of the BetaCodex Network´s white papers on Organizing for Complexity - two papers in one! Illustrations by Pia Steinmann
FDSeminar Meer doen met minder | 17 maart | BMW Group BeluxFDMagazine
Johan Bohyn (CFO RecoMatics)
Ontdek hoe het digitaliseren van processen en hun papierstroom uw efficiëntie kunnen verhogen en centralisatie in de hand werken. Johan Bohyn legt uit hoe organisaties het evenwicht kunnen bewaren tussen het nieuwe werken en slim werken met een papierarm kantoor en een digitale workflow.
HRSeminar KPI's: Geert Scheipers (academic director organizational performan...HRmagazine
In het vak ‘Beheerscontrole’ ligt de nadruk traditioneel op extrinsieke drijfveren die mensen aanzetten tot het realiseren van bedrijfsdoelstellingen. Denk daarbij aan ‘Pay-for-performance’, evaluatie-systemen, rapporteringen, budgetten,… Populaire publicaties van bijvoorbeeld Frederic Laloux (Reinventing organizations), Ricardo Semler (The 7 day weekend) of Vincent Nayar (Employee First, Customer second) tonen dat er andere culturen en bedrijfsfilosofieën zijn.
Maar betekent dit dan ook dat de pijlers van het vakgebied niet meer relevant zijn? Zijn indicatoren historisch erfgoed in management geworden? Vast niet, maar het is wel tijd om terug naar de bron van het vak te gaan en om de traditionele managementprocessen op een andere manier aan te pakken, zodat ze beter inspelen op de trends in onze marktomgeving en aantrekkelijk zijn voor de nieuwe generaties waarmee we samen werken.
In deze sessie vertrekt Geert Scheipers vanuit goed onderzoek rond sturen in organisaties, om te bekijken hoe men vanuit een doorleefde visie en inspiratie succesvolle, duurzame organisaties uit kan bouwen.
Teams That Flow ebook - Nokia #SmarterEverydayNokia
Flow is the psychological description of those really satisfying occasions
at work: you’re productive, engaged, confident and operating at your full potential. When a team is in flow, it’s innovative, harmonious and productive. Being part of it improves the performance of each member. Communication is purposeful and clear. Friction is seen as an opportunity, not a personal threat. Location and time zones pose no barriers. The balance is just right, and everything flows.
This book is a guide to building a team that flows. We’re going to begin with the theory, explaining the concepts and elements you need to create flow, before moving onto the practicalities of harnessing the power of collaboration,
working alongside technology, and leading a more productive working life within any team.
There are companies that succeed and companies that fail. The biggest difference between winners and losers is smart winners make good, even mediocre, ideas great over time.
This presentation includes a draft version of the tools that will be presented in our new book Cycles
Keywords: Bryan Cassady , Innovation , Lean
Organize for Complexity, part I+II - Special Edition PaperNiels Pflaeging
The future of the Organization.
Special Edition of the BetaCodex Network´s white papers on Organizing for Complexity - two papers in one! Illustrations by Pia Steinmann
FDSeminar Meer doen met minder | 17 maart | BMW Group BeluxFDMagazine
Johan Bohyn (CFO RecoMatics)
Ontdek hoe het digitaliseren van processen en hun papierstroom uw efficiëntie kunnen verhogen en centralisatie in de hand werken. Johan Bohyn legt uit hoe organisaties het evenwicht kunnen bewaren tussen het nieuwe werken en slim werken met een papierarm kantoor en een digitale workflow.
HRSeminar KPI's: Geert Scheipers (academic director organizational performan...HRmagazine
In het vak ‘Beheerscontrole’ ligt de nadruk traditioneel op extrinsieke drijfveren die mensen aanzetten tot het realiseren van bedrijfsdoelstellingen. Denk daarbij aan ‘Pay-for-performance’, evaluatie-systemen, rapporteringen, budgetten,… Populaire publicaties van bijvoorbeeld Frederic Laloux (Reinventing organizations), Ricardo Semler (The 7 day weekend) of Vincent Nayar (Employee First, Customer second) tonen dat er andere culturen en bedrijfsfilosofieën zijn.
Maar betekent dit dan ook dat de pijlers van het vakgebied niet meer relevant zijn? Zijn indicatoren historisch erfgoed in management geworden? Vast niet, maar het is wel tijd om terug naar de bron van het vak te gaan en om de traditionele managementprocessen op een andere manier aan te pakken, zodat ze beter inspelen op de trends in onze marktomgeving en aantrekkelijk zijn voor de nieuwe generaties waarmee we samen werken.
In deze sessie vertrekt Geert Scheipers vanuit goed onderzoek rond sturen in organisaties, om te bekijken hoe men vanuit een doorleefde visie en inspiratie succesvolle, duurzame organisaties uit kan bouwen.
Teams That Flow ebook - Nokia #SmarterEverydayNokia
Flow is the psychological description of those really satisfying occasions
at work: you’re productive, engaged, confident and operating at your full potential. When a team is in flow, it’s innovative, harmonious and productive. Being part of it improves the performance of each member. Communication is purposeful and clear. Friction is seen as an opportunity, not a personal threat. Location and time zones pose no barriers. The balance is just right, and everything flows.
This book is a guide to building a team that flows. We’re going to begin with the theory, explaining the concepts and elements you need to create flow, before moving onto the practicalities of harnessing the power of collaboration,
working alongside technology, and leading a more productive working life within any team.
There are companies that succeed and companies that fail. The biggest difference between winners and losers is smart winners make good, even mediocre, ideas great over time.
This presentation includes a draft version of the tools that will be presented in our new book Cycles
Keywords: Bryan Cassady , Innovation , Lean
Final cycles overview jan 2019 with toolkitBryan Cassady
Scaling up is hard and deadly if done wrong. We would like to help you get it right.
This presentation introduces the ABCs method of innovation and provides toolkits you could use to grow fast while reducing riks
Details
A study by Startup Genome analyzed the results of 3,200 start-ups, they found that of the majority of start-ups failed. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. What is more important is they found, 70% failed because of premature or faulty scaling.
In this workshop, you learn about the ABCs method. The ABCs method is a system-based approach to growing your business. It has been proven to build ideas up to 6x faster while reducing risks 30-80%.
We are proud to announce our 35th Innovation Excellence Weekly for Slideshare. Inside you'll find ten of the best innovation-related articles from the past week on Innovation Excellence - the world's most popular innovation web site and home to 5,500+ innovation-related articles.
Cycles: The simplest, proven way to build your businessBryan Cassady
Scaling up is hard and deadly if done wrong. We would like to help you get it right.
A study by Startup Genome analyzed the results of 3,200 start-ups, they found that of the majority of start-ups failed. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. What is more important is they found, 70% failed because of premature or faulty scaling.
In this workshop, you learn about the ABCs method. The ABCs method is a system-based approach to growing your business. It has been proven to build ideas up to 6x faster while reducing risks 30-80%.
A small summery and description of network organization that can be used for large out-scaled agile organizations. Some way to manage the decentralization.
Why Obeya is such a fascinating tool for leadership. How to lead succesful strategies using a big room where you see, learn and act together. Know that there is much more going on than just the visuals.
Steve Denning: Radical Management Vortrag am Internet-Briefing Sep13-2011Walter Schärer
‘Radical Management’ is a set of 5 principles. There are only two types of organizations: The ones that love and delight their customers and the others. Amazon, Apple, Salesforce are organizations that have succeded despite fierce competition due to delighted customers.
What’s their management principles?
Speech by Stephen Denning at Reto Hartinger’s Internet Briefing in Zurich.
Creative thinking is a critical skill required by all people within their roles at work. It is often done by trial and error – the thinker creates an idea and determines if it will work. Not only is trial and error limited by personal knowledge, thinking is also constrained by a “stuckness” in how things are and how they should be.
Outcomes from Thinking Differently – Enabling Innovation
Understanding and various uses of Nine Windows, a TRIZ inventive problem solving tool.
Use of Nine Windows to break “stuckness” in thinking and view solutions from a systemic level.
www.create-learning.com
Our latest white paper shares new global research based on 7000 employee surveys in the US, Brazil, UK, Germany, Australia, Singapore and China, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. We look at questions like: Can anyone be creative? How do employers build creative cultures? Is playing at work the answer? What are the business rewards of inspiring creativity—and the risks of failing to?
Hurricane change 3 methods for preparing for disruptive change in businessMatthew Hawkins
Business transformation can be disruptively beautiful. It usually leaves a path of destruction on it's way to creating a better organization. The challenge is that it inflicts significant change on people. Are there ways to better prepare for it? Yes. We'll examine 3 things you can do to prepare for disruptive change in your business.
Final cycles overview jan 2019 with toolkitBryan Cassady
Scaling up is hard and deadly if done wrong. We would like to help you get it right.
This presentation introduces the ABCs method of innovation and provides toolkits you could use to grow fast while reducing riks
Details
A study by Startup Genome analyzed the results of 3,200 start-ups, they found that of the majority of start-ups failed. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. What is more important is they found, 70% failed because of premature or faulty scaling.
In this workshop, you learn about the ABCs method. The ABCs method is a system-based approach to growing your business. It has been proven to build ideas up to 6x faster while reducing risks 30-80%.
We are proud to announce our 35th Innovation Excellence Weekly for Slideshare. Inside you'll find ten of the best innovation-related articles from the past week on Innovation Excellence - the world's most popular innovation web site and home to 5,500+ innovation-related articles.
Cycles: The simplest, proven way to build your businessBryan Cassady
Scaling up is hard and deadly if done wrong. We would like to help you get it right.
A study by Startup Genome analyzed the results of 3,200 start-ups, they found that of the majority of start-ups failed. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. What is more important is they found, 70% failed because of premature or faulty scaling.
In this workshop, you learn about the ABCs method. The ABCs method is a system-based approach to growing your business. It has been proven to build ideas up to 6x faster while reducing risks 30-80%.
A small summery and description of network organization that can be used for large out-scaled agile organizations. Some way to manage the decentralization.
Why Obeya is such a fascinating tool for leadership. How to lead succesful strategies using a big room where you see, learn and act together. Know that there is much more going on than just the visuals.
Steve Denning: Radical Management Vortrag am Internet-Briefing Sep13-2011Walter Schärer
‘Radical Management’ is a set of 5 principles. There are only two types of organizations: The ones that love and delight their customers and the others. Amazon, Apple, Salesforce are organizations that have succeded despite fierce competition due to delighted customers.
What’s their management principles?
Speech by Stephen Denning at Reto Hartinger’s Internet Briefing in Zurich.
Creative thinking is a critical skill required by all people within their roles at work. It is often done by trial and error – the thinker creates an idea and determines if it will work. Not only is trial and error limited by personal knowledge, thinking is also constrained by a “stuckness” in how things are and how they should be.
Outcomes from Thinking Differently – Enabling Innovation
Understanding and various uses of Nine Windows, a TRIZ inventive problem solving tool.
Use of Nine Windows to break “stuckness” in thinking and view solutions from a systemic level.
www.create-learning.com
Our latest white paper shares new global research based on 7000 employee surveys in the US, Brazil, UK, Germany, Australia, Singapore and China, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. We look at questions like: Can anyone be creative? How do employers build creative cultures? Is playing at work the answer? What are the business rewards of inspiring creativity—and the risks of failing to?
Hurricane change 3 methods for preparing for disruptive change in businessMatthew Hawkins
Business transformation can be disruptively beautiful. It usually leaves a path of destruction on it's way to creating a better organization. The challenge is that it inflicts significant change on people. Are there ways to better prepare for it? Yes. We'll examine 3 things you can do to prepare for disruptive change in your business.
Discover how a group of entrepreneurs solved the two biggest
problems in network marketing...money & recruits
And how they eliminated attrition once & for all.
How start ups are changing the Indian Business by introducing innovative business model. The new age of entrepreneurs start up ideas of conventional business model in Indian E-Commerce Industry are trying to create a business empire which no one can imagine in the Indian Market and to work on such a model which never existed.
How to Survive in a Fast-Changing World | Business Model InnovationAnja Hoffmann
Business innovation is a hot topic for companies across the world. Business executives are using big data, analytics and emerging technologies to improve customer experiences.
The world is changing at an ever-increasing pace. We need to see the whole picture to understand what to do about it. Industries are going through a disruptive change, a phenomenon that already has transformed the media industry, retailing and transportation.
The CEO of the 21st century need to pay attention to significant industry change. The ability to identify new business opportunities and integrate new business models in their organizations is critical to survive in a rapidly changing world.
How do you compete and WIN in the customer-centered economy? Excellent customer experience is a fundamental driver for growth and business success.
By 2020, more than 30 billion devices will be wirelessly connected to physical things. How will 'The Internet of Things' impact your business model?
Remember: Change is good. Standing still is killing your business.
Studying Simon Sinek: Start With the Golden CircleChiara Ojeda
Most of us communicate from the outside in, but author Simon Sinek believes true inspiration comes when we start with why. This brief introduction to The Golden Circle is a teaching tool used in class.
Post SMPS conference write up on the topic shared, how to build change accepting work environments. The session received the highest ranking and evaluations of any given that week.
The “Course Topics” series from Manage Train Learn and Slide Topics is a collection of over 4000 slides that will help you master a wide range of management and personal development skills. The 202 PowerPoints in this series offer you a complete and in-depth study of each topic. This presentation is on "Managing Paradox".
HBRs 10 Must Reads on Change Management The Real Reason People.docxshericehewat
HBR's 10 Must Reads on Change Management: The Real Reason People Won't Change
The Real Reason People Won’t Change
by Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey
EVERY MANAGER IS FAMILIAR with the employee who just won’t change. Sometimes it’s easy to see why—the employee fears a shift in power, the need to learn new skills, the stress of having to join a new team. In other cases, such resistance is far more puzzling. An employee has the skills and smarts to make a change with ease, has shown a deep commitment to the company, genuinely supports the change—and yet, inexplicably, does nothing.
What’s going on? As organizational psychologists, we have seen this dynamic literally hundreds of times, and our research and analysis have recently led us to a surprising yet deceptively simple conclusion. Resistance to change does not reflect opposition, nor is it merely a result of inertia. Instead, even as they hold a sincere commitment to change, many people are unwittingly applying productive energy toward a hidden competing commitment. The resulting dynamic equilibrium stalls the effort in what looks like resistance but is in fact a kind of personal immunity to change.
When you, as a manager, uncover an employee’s competing commitment, behavior that has seemed irrational and ineffective suddenly becomes stunningly sensible and masterful—but unfortunately, on behalf of a goal that conflicts with what you and even the employee are trying to achieve. You find out that the project leader who’s dragging his feet has an unrecognized competing commitment to avoid the even tougher assignment—one he fears he can’t handle—that might come his way next if he delivers too successfully on the task at hand. Or you find that the person who won’t collaborate despite a passionate and sincere commitment to teamwork is equally dedicated to avoiding the conflict that naturally attends any ambitious team activity.
In these pages, we’ll look at competing commitments in detail and take you through a process to help your employees overcome their immunity to change. The process may sound straightforward, but it is by no means quick or easy. On the contrary, it challenges the very psychological foundations upon which people function. It asks people to call into question beliefs they’ve long held close, perhaps since childhood. And it requires people to admit to painful, even embarrassing, feelings that they would not ordinarily disclose to others or even to themselves. Indeed, some people will opt not to disrupt their immunity to change, choosing instead to continue their fruitless struggle against their competing commitments.
As a manager, you must guide people through this exercise with understanding and sensitivity. If your employees are to engage in honest introspection and candid disclosure, they must understand that their revelations won’t be used against them. The goal of this exploration is solely to help them become more effective, not to find flaws in their work or character ...
From Now to New Right Here: Change-as-Flipping (BetaCodex16) Niels Pflaeging
BetaCodex Network White Paper No. 16. March 2019
Authors: Niels Pflaeging & Silke Hermann
A white paper about the alternative to "change management" as we know it. Change is more like adding milk to coffee!
Conventional wisdom teaches us to avoid ambiguity. Clarity of facts and process is highly valued, particularly by young agency people. Yet we know that ambiguity can be a stimulus to creative thinking.
Here are some thoughts on how ambiguity can work for your advertising agency.
From this article Kahneman, D., Lovallo, D., & Sibony, O. (2011.docxbudbarber38650
From this article:
Kahneman, D., Lovallo, D., & Sibony, O. (2011a). Before you make that big decision. Harvard Business Review, 89(6).
This is the article in reference:
Dangerous biases can creep into every strategic choice. Here's how to find them--before they lead you astray
THANKS TO a slew of popular new books, many executives today realize how biases can distort reasoning in business. Confirmation bias, for instance, leads people to ignore evidence that contradicts their preconceived notions. Anchoring causes them to weigh one piece of information too heavily in making decisions; loss aversion makes them too cautious. In our experience, however, awareness of the effects of biases has done little to improve the quality of business decisions at either the individual or the organizational level.
Though there may now be far more talk of biases among managers, talk alone will not eliminate them. But it is possible to take steps to counteract them. A recent McKinsey study of more than 1,000 major business investments showed that when organizations worked at reducing the effect of bias in their decision-making processes, they achieved returns up to seven percentage points higher. (For more on this study, see "The Case for Behavioral Strategy," McKinsey Quarterly, March 2010.) Reducing bias makes a difference. In this article, we will describe a straightforward way to detect bias and minimize its effects in the most common kind of decision that executives make: reviewing a recommendation from someone else and determining whether to accept it, reject it, or pass it on to the next level.
For most executives, these reviews seem simple enough. First, they need to quickly grasp the relevant facts (getting them from people who know more about the details than they do). Second, they need to figure out if the people making the recommendation are intentionally clouding the facts in some way. And finally, they need to apply their own experience, knowledge, and reasoning to decide whether the recommendation is right.
However, this process is fraught at every stage with the potential for distortions in judgment that result from cognitive biases. Executives can't do much about their own biases, as we shall see. But given the proper tools, they can recognize and neutralize those of their teams. Over time, by using these tools, they will build decision processes that reduce the effect of biases in their organizations. And in doing so, they'll help upgrade the quality of decisions their organizations make.
The Challenge of Avoiding Bias
Let's delve first into the question of why people are incapable of recognizing their own biases.
According to cognitive scientists, there are two modes of thinking, intuitive and reflective. (In recent decades a lot of psychological research has focused on distinctions between them. Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein popularized it in their book, Nudge.) In intuitive, or System One, thinking, impressions, associations, feeling.
Here We Go Again: Leading in Tough Times (a ChangeThis Manifesto by Lee J. Co...Samuli Pahkala
Here We Go Again: Leading in Tough Times
"Have you been wishing for the good old days lately? Or at least to rewind the economic clock 12 months? Leading a company during a slowing economy has plenty of challenges: What should you change, stop or continue doing?"
The 10 Most Innovative Business Leaders Revamping the Future.pdfCIO Look Magazine
This edition features a handful of innovative business leaders that are at the forefront of leading us into a healthy future
Read More: https://ciolook.com/the-10-most-innovative-business-leaders-revamping-the-future-july2022/
Presented at Big Design Conference in Oct. 2013.
Can we finally let go of the Designer/Wizard Myth? Not that it wasn’t an enchanting tale: The socially awkward genius all in black, working vampire hours, wearing headphones and horn rims and cranking out magical solutions to transform mediocre ideas and questionable product management into gazillion-dollar success.
In reality, jumping straight to design intensifies any organization’s pre-existing dysfunction and guarantees half-assed solutions and endless cycles of equally ineffective redesign.
Design isn’t magic and it doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Like it or not, organizations create successful user experiences, not designers. This talk will outline what an effective UX professional should be doing long before a single pixel has been designed. Participants will walk away with specific “bottom-up” tactics to more accurately define the organization, adjust team structure and tweak process.
How to Survive & Thrive in Today´s High Risk Business World.
In this new economy that we are living, "Culture of High Risk," Companies can lose phenomenal sums of money for months and deny that anything is amiss, until losses are too large to be ignored. Then they look for the downsizing employees in a futile attempt to cut their losses. When asked why they didn´t do anything about their mounting losses earlier, some companies use to say “We are waiting for it to turn around” or “We can´t do much about it because we can´t get the right employees to cooperate”...these excuses are nothing more than denials that the situation is bad and must be changed.
Similar to Random thoughts about a changing business world (20)
The New Era of the Corporate Culture and the Consultancy
Random thoughts about a changing business world
1. random thoughts
about a changing business world
Marc Buyens
marc.buyens@xpragma.com
www.xpragma.com
Notes accompany this presentation. Please select Notes Page view.
These materials can be reproduced only with Gartner’s official approval.
Such approvals may be requested via e-mail — quote.requests@gartner.com.
2. About this presentation
This is a small list of musings or if you want, “beliefs” that we have about the inner
workings of today’s businesses. They are just a random selection. There isn't a
relation between the different items, no system behind, no specific ranking.
In this world of accelerating change, few frameworks or methodologies are available
that can help us making sense of emerging opportunities and challenges. So, having
these “beliefs” helps us making sense. They give direction, they provide context,
they are some kind of rules of thumb that help us understanding the real potential or
the likely failure of new approaches and technologies.
None of these thoughts must be viewed as an absolute truth. As with most things in
life, things are rarely completely black or white. There are always shades of grey.
None of these thoughts are very detailed either. There is much more that can be said
about each of them. However, when being faced with growing complexity, simple
rules often work best.
.
3. Evolution isn’t an interconnected network that allows you to choose paths
as you wish; evolution is a tree and you climb the branches
4. Evolution isn’t an interconnected network that allows you to choose paths as you
wish; evolution is a tree and you climb the branches
While making decisions, we always have this expectation that, when things don’t turn
out as expected, we will be able to recover, to retreat, to return to our starting
position.
This, unfortunately, is an illusion.
Whatever small step we take, it has consequences. It leaves traces. It cannot be
undone.
Of course, this should not be an excuse for not making decisions.
However, before doing so, it might be worthwhile considering whether we really
want to face the consequences.
6. Employees are individuals
All employees, even when having identical jobs, are different individuals. The only
thing they have in common is a job description.
Therefore, when looking at a functional group within an organisation, we must look
at it as being a network of individuals having complex interactions, instead of viewing
it as a row of silent dots.
Especially in these times of the deployment of social networking tools within the
enterprise, we must be well aware of the fact that the “social enterprise” should not
be about connecting anyone to anyone, but about connecting someone to someone.
8. Resistance to change does not exist
While implementing change programs. resistance to change is often viewed as a
major roadblock. That is weird, because it does not exist.
Just have a look at our own private life. We grow up, get married, get a job, buy a
house, get kids: a continuous sequence of fundamental changes. Yet, do we
experience this as "change"? So, why do we do in a business context?
Well, the main difference is our perception of the level of control that we have over
the situation.
In our private life we have, in reality, little control over all these things, but we feel
confident that we will manage. Consequently, we view change as an opportunity.
In a company context and especially as a regular employee, we know that our level of
control is limited and therefore, we view change as a risk. And then, we need Kotter's
8-step change model. Step one: Create a sense of urgency...
.
10. The problem is that there is a solution
When envisioning the future, we humans have this fundamental handicap that our
thinking is severely conditioned by what we already know, by the things that we
know are possible, by the solutions that we know are available.
As such, there’s nothing wrong with that. It makes absolutely sense. However, this
behaviour has the inherent risk of scanning our world for problems and matching
them with the solutions that we know, without really asking whether we are
addressing a root cause problem or just the symptoms of a much deeper problem.
12. Humans are not social
Well, this one is certainly a bit controversial, especially for the social business pundits
who claim that “business has to be social because people are social”.
They are right, of course. We humans are indeed social. It is somewhere in our genes.
In the past, working together was a bare necessity for the survival of the human race.
However today, little of this “bare necessity” still remains. In addition, various forms
of formal company constructs, such as hierarchies, departments and job descriptions,
disturb the mechanisms of normal human interactions.
The outcome is a variety of behaviours whereby people try to do less than their fair
part of the work or try to get more than their fair part of the gains.
So, “social” might be a characteristic of the average behaviour of individuals, but
don’t count on it too much.
.
14. Youngsters are adults
Well, this isn’t really a scientifically correct statement, but what we mean by this is
that we largely overestimate our ability to “change” individuals. Countless amounts
of time and money are spent on training programs that will not deliver any result.
Reality is that, once grown up, there is very little that will ever change to our
“personality”, even when having to face extreme challenges. This does not mean
that we can no longer learn. If you are an introvert, very likely you might not like
speaking in public. However, this is something you can learn; you can become a
skilled presenter; you might even like doing it. Still, you remain an introvert and it will
show in a myriad of situations in your day-to-day activities.
Far too many training programs try to address aspects of our personality that cannot
be changed. You can bring individuals in situations that are unfamiliar, making them
to react in a “different” way. However, once these artificial conditions disappear,
everything returns to normal.
You cannot transform a mule into a race horse. You simply have to make sure that
you hire the right individuals for your business.
15. When being faced with new challenges, failure is rarely
caused by not understanding the new paradigms, but rather
by our belief of understanding the old ones
16. When being faced with new challenges, failure is rarely caused by not
understanding the new paradigms, but rather by our belief of understanding the old
ones
Each time a new technology emerges, sales people and consultants will rush into
your office, explaining you how this great new technology will “transform” your
business.
Granted, many of these new technologies can really add value. However, in most
cases, they are only “transformational” to the extent that you did not understand,
implement and use the previous generation of solutions.
So, try understanding why this new solution can claim to be really transformational in
your specific business context and fix before you buy.
.
.
18. Quantum entanglement is OK, even for engineers
Quantum entanglement is one of these weird phenomena in quantum physics
whereby it has been found that, in specific situations, two particles are still able to
“influence” each other while, according to today’s theories, this should be impossible
(e.g. because they move away from each other at light speed).
It is one of these things that make life interesting: to know that there are still things
to discover.
But also in business, there is still much to learn and to discover. In today’s increasingly
complex world, little of the traditional management wisdom still holds. In this new
complex business world, companies will no longer be able to control and to plan
every aspect of their business environment. The complexity just gets too great.
Instead, they must organise for better adaptability, resilience and recoverability,
which are all competences that call for less hierarchical control and more self-control
at all levels of the organisation.
.
.
20. The solution is never the reason for the success
In management literature there is this very popular thing, called the “business case”.
The concept is simple. Solution ‘X’ is a current hype, so you look how successful
company ‘Y’ is using it, a so-called “best practice”. Or you examine a number of
successful companies and you look for what they have in common, a so-called “driver
for success”.
The problem with approaches like this is that they look at the relationship between
business success and a single dimension of the business activity. That can be
interesting. However, such approach also suggests that there is a causal link between
that single dimension and the business success.
Unfortunately, reality is that successful companies never are successful just because
they are excellent in just this single aspect of their business. They are successful
because they are excellent in every aspect of their business.
So, the only thing the business case really tells us is that, even when using this “great
new solution”, you can still be successful.
.
.
22. Colour
Sitting on the train in front of two Muslim girls
Both very traditionally dressed wearing white kerchiefs
Vividly talking about their planned visit to the hairdresser
To have their hair coloured
Sometimes, everything seems perfectly normal in this crazy world
In far too many aspects of our business activities, we think to know and to
understand and we take decisions, based upon this understanding. Yet, in most
cases, this understanding is incorrect, based on perceptions or, at least, very
incomplete.
There are no miracle remedies for this, no tools that we can buy. We just have to
experience it the hard way.
.