Tag Archives: William James

Words are Easy, Numbers can be Faked, Behaviour is Difficult: The Case for Embodied Management

When I wrote Learning from the Links back in 2002 I was trying to make the case that management, like golf, was a practice and attempts to make progress in either activity should follow similar paths. I was particularly inspired … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy | Tagged artificial intelligence, body, body-mind, brain, Charles Sanders Peirce, dualism, embodied management, Genghis, GOFAI, integrated reporting, John Dewey, Learning from the Links, Mark Johnson, pragmatic turn, pragmatists, Rodney Brooks, Upton Sinclair, William James | Comments Off on Words are Easy, Numbers can be Faked, Behaviour is Difficult: The Case for Embodied Management

Romney and Obama: Do Mormons Make Better Managers than Leaders?

We are into the last six weeks of the presidential election and the contrasts between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama throw light on the sometimes-controversial distinction between managers and leaders. In his 1977 article in the Harvard Business Review “Managers … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, General, Leadership, Strategy, Uncategorized | Tagged Barack Obama, Clayton Christensen, context, David Brooks, Democratic National Convention, George W. Bush, leaders, manager, means and ends, Mitt Romney, Mormon, narrative, pull, push, strategy, Varieties of Religious Experience, William James, Zaleznik | 1 Comment

The “Comeback Kid” Comes Through and the Perils of Improv

Last week I wrote about Clint Eastwood’s unintended highlight speech at the Republican National Convention (RNC) and this week my topic is the Democratic National Convention (DNC). Clint Eastwood has since revealed what he was thinking when he gave his … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Leadership | Tagged anthropology, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton speech, Charles Krauthammer, Clint Eastwood speech, Comeback Kid, community, Democratice National Convention, hunter-gatherer, improv, improvisation, Lorna Marshall, Michelle Obama speech, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, more perfect union, narrative, religious revival, Republican National Convention, William James, Wittgenstein | 4 Comments

In Praise of Ecological Rationality: The Return of Practical Wisdom to Management

This is the title of the article of mine published last week by the European Financial Review. It begins like this: Just over fifty years ago in America a concerted attempt was made to professionalize the field of management and … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Leadership | Tagged ba, both...and, ecocycle, ecological rationality, either/or, European Financial Review, existentialist, functional disciplines, functions, Haridomos Tsoukas, hermeneutist, Immanuel Kant, John Dewey, Jorgen Sandberg, Martin Heidegger, means and ends, phenomenologist, practical rationality, practical wisdom, Rene Descartes, Richard Feynman, rigor and relevance, scientifi rationality, theory and practice, William James, Yogi Berra | Comments Off on In Praise of Ecological Rationality: The Return of Practical Wisdom to Management