Operating, and other, models
We've been posed the question in our organisation: 'what are we seeing as emergent problems' that are giving rise to 'noise around the operating model'. This has led to several reviews gathering...
View ArticleHow many organisations? How many people?
I don't know why it's crossed my mind to count the number of organisations involved in taking the three of us on holiday. Here we are sitting in a hotel in Istanbul looking at the Marmara Sea from the...
View ArticleThe knife edge of organisational change
I still haven't managed to cure myself of my habit of saying 'yes' instead of 'no'. There's lots of advice on how to say no which I seem unable to take, though I did manage it twice last week which...
View ArticleBringing purpose to life (thx Pete)
On Tuesday I went to a discussion on 'Bringing Purpose to Life'. I was attracted by the ambiguous title. Was it about bringing purpose into our personal lives, as in 'The Purpose Driven Life', or was...
View ArticleA bit of a Brain-Teaser for you....
This week I got these questions:What are you noticing about the practice of organization design recently? What are the implications?How would you best design a corporate centre for a new organisation...
View ArticleBetter tech, better organisation?
This week just gone was peppered with discussion on new types of organisation designs and questions on whether traditional organisations can morph to a new design – flat, networked, nodal - or are they...
View ArticleBeing on the edge of inside
I set myself a hard task when I sent off my paragraph to the European Organisation Design Forum saying what I would talk about at the annual conference coming up this week.Naomi will discuss with us...
View ArticleQuestions for OD practitioners
On Friday and Saturday I was at the EODF conference, and was honoured to be labeled 'special guest' and give one of the six keynote presentations. Although nerve-wracking it was a good reflective...
View ArticleToo many direct reports
Last week I was talking with someone with 'too many direct reports'. I've been here before and commonly the statement comes with a request to know what the 'right' number of direct reports is that...
View ArticleLegitimizers and mine detectors: external and internal consultants
I've been both an internal consultant and an external consultant at various times in my career. My preference is for internal consulting and I'm often asked why: people seem to find it curious as...
View ArticleImplications of swirl
Several meetings I participated in last week left me musing on 'implications of swirl'. This is a phrase I came across in a Bain brief 'Four paths to a focused organisation' looking at change and...
View ArticleTufte and Elephants
Last week I was in Washington DC. I got the bus from the airport to Wiehle Reston metro station where you get the Silver Line into the city. There on the station plaza are two colo(u)rful sculptures...
View ArticleResisting change
Several things happened this week that tested my own resistance to change. I've often said that people are happy enough to change as long as they have had a part in the decisions and it is somewhat...
View ArticleA seat at which table?
I'm repeatedly asked where should Organisation Design sit as an organisational function? The question means where, functionally, should the skills and attributes of OD report. It's a question I tackle...
View ArticleThe value of events
The past week seems to have been one of events in that I attended a change management masterclass hosted by Kogan-Page: People-centered Organizational Change: Strategies for Success. I went to a book...
View ArticleIn a trice or in 14 years?
Last week I went to the dentist and he finished the visit saying 'See you in a year'. My response was 'Well, a year will pass in a trice'. This was a phrase that he'd never heard and I had to translate...
View ArticleOrganisation design career paths
Last week we were asked to develop career paths in organisation design. Career paths show what 'a prototypical career looks like in terms of sequential positions, roles, and stages. They outline common...
View ArticleCompassion
Each day I get an email from Gratefulness.org giving me a quote on a reason to be grateful I can't remember when or why I signed up for them but I enjoy them and often they have some linkage to...
View ArticleElites and the establishment
A couple of weeks ago, the Economist ran a piece on 'elites'. The writer cautions "Careful writers should avoid this word; it is becoming a junk-bin concept used by different people to mean wildly...
View ArticleChange management or organization development
Sparked by a conversation this week on change managers v organisation development practitioners, and fanned into flames by my starting to write something on this topic for the revised edition of my...
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