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Category Archives: Organizational Leadership

Roundup: Lessons from every quarter

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Advice for effective management has been showing up in some of the most unlikely places over the past several weeks, or in unexpected guises. Let’s take a look at some of these, leavened with some real advice from some of the best management trainers around. . .

Also filed in Boards, Communication, Conflict, Individual Leadership, Management | | Comments (4)

The chasm

Monday, September 28, 2009

One of the key problems with the notion of exceptional individual leadership is that it is inwardly focused. It is all about the individual, and the electric impression he or she is supposed to make on “followers” at all levels. Only then, if at all, does the subject turn . . .

Also filed in Individual Leadership, Management Development | | Comments (2)

Cultures in conflict

Friday, August 14, 2009

A good part of Adam Nicolson’s gripping retelling of the great Naval Battle of Trafalgar, “Seize the Fire,” turns out to be an exceptionally insightful depiction of the complex and powerful societal undertows that threw the combatant nations together on that awful day in October of 1805. . .

Also filed in Book Reviews, Culture, Individual Leadership | | Comments (0)

The advantages of extinction

Friday, August 7, 2009

In nature, there are a variety of ways that organisms can disappear. There are those associated with predation and competition, of course. But there are two others that are integrally related to the processes of natural selection and evolution. The more interesting of the two from the perspective of organizational design is called . . .

Also filed in Capitalism, Change, Design, Individual Leadership | | Comments (2)

Errant evolution

Thursday, August 6, 2009

A key element of the many ideas drawn from science for application in management theories – and, in particular, in more recent notions of individual and organizational leadership – is the concept of evolution. As in so many other such borrowings, of course, the notion is roughly handled, and the results ultimately produce yet more disappointment and disaffection with the very thought of management theorizing. It is a truism, for example . . .

Also filed in Design | | Comments (2)

Whether the facts hit the theory or the theory hits the facts

Friday, July 31, 2009

Sometimes a theory becomes so powerful that no fact can withstand a collision with it. Indeed, it accumulates such overwhelming attractiveness as a persuasive, explanatory model, that facts wandering into its range are simply either absorbed or obliterated. It happens so quickly and completely as to escape detection. A violent end with no witnesses. In many ways, psychoanalysis is a good example of this . . .

Also filed in Design | | Comments (0)

Androgynes

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Have you noticed the uniformity, in recent years, in the must-have look for male actors – and, indeed, for celebrities in many fields? In this age of carefully market- researched entertainment, you can rest assured that this particular fashion trend clearly is intended to make a statement. . .

Also filed in Individual Leadership | | Comments (0)

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