Tag Archives: crisis

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False Wizards Part II: A Plague of Paradigms

The English economist John Kay contends that the word “paradigm” is “the most overworked and abused term in the study of management.” I agree with him completely and must confess that I cringe every time I see the latest management … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General | Tagged Anglo-Saxon capitalism, Cadbury, change, community, complex systems, Costco, crisis, customer, employee, Forbes, Fry, goals, John Mackey, life cycle, Mary Parker Follett, Nonconformists, paradigm, power, principles, Quakers, reason, Robert E. Wood, Rowntree, scale, Sears, shareholder, Steve Denning, trust, values, W.L. Gore, Whole Foods | 2 Comments

Shareholder Value Part III: A New Narrative for Capitalism

The ripples from Joe Nocera’s August 10 column in The New York Times, “Down With Shareholder Value” continue to radiate throughout the blogosphere. This past week I came across Miguel Padró’s Yahoo blog, “Is ‘Maximizing Shareholder Value’ No Longer the … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged Alexis de Toqueville, Anglo-Saxon capitalism, Aspen Institute, Berle and Means, community capitalism, context, crisis, destruction, ecodynamics, ecological perspective, ecology, English Nonconformists, evolution, externalities, family business, Gerald Davis, hunter-gatherer, Joe Nocera, John Kenneth Galbraith, managerial capitalism, MiguelPadro, narrative, narrative centre of gravity, neoclassical economics, re-localize, renewal, retention, selection, shareholder capitalism, shareholder value model, Sisyphus, The New Industrial State, variation | 1 Comment

Recipe for Ruin: Nothing Lasts Unless It Is Incessantly Renewed

Over the weekend a comment on a management blog referred to a piece by management writer Steve Denning in Forbes magazine. Entitled “The Key Missing Ingredient in Leadership Today”, it argued that real leadership is all about transforming systems, not … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership | Tagged Apocalypse Now, bureaucracy, coercive bureaucracy, complex systems, context, creativity, crisis, Denning, Deresiewicz, destruction, discipline, ecological perspective, enabling bureaucracy, Forbes, Francis Ford Coppola, freedom, Heart of Darkness, hierarchy, identity, innovation, Joseph Conrad, know-how, know-what, means and ends, modular, narrative, power, renewal, ruin, Toyota Production System, West Point | Comments Off on Recipe for Ruin: Nothing Lasts Unless It Is Incessantly Renewed

Growing People: Give head and elbow room

How does one develop senior people? The evidence is rather clear from sources as far apart as the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) and the consultants, McKinsey. At CCL they have found that the best preparation for a senior role in any … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged Andreas Kluth, bad bosses, Center for Creative Leadership, Chris Anderson, crisis, ecocycle, elbow room, flawed bosses, fractal, head room, job structure, learning from experience, McKinsey, The Economist, turnaround, Wired magazine | 1 Comment Newer posts →