If ‘Be More Pirate’ and ‘Reinventing Organizations’ had idea sex, what would their offspring look like? Haven’t you always wondered that? Oh. So just me then. Well, it’s not the first time I’ve been called weird. Seriously, though, these two books are two sides of the same coin to me. ‘Be More Pirate’ explained to […] Read More…
The world’s been turned upside down. ‘Normal’ life has been completely disrupted. We’ve been shoved through the COVID-19 doorway into a Brave New World and we are staring and blinking and trying to take it all in. It’s a confusing mix of the old and the new. It’s work, Jim, but not as we know […] Read More…
You’d hear the rattle of the cups first. People would look up from their desks and say, “Ooh, lovely, just what I need” or “About time, I’m gasping”, depending on their disposition. The trolley would nose its way through the doors, with the the tea lady in tow. And we’d all stop work as she […] Read More…
You know what’s not on an org chart? People. Odd that, isn’t it? I mean, isn’t that the point of an org chart, to show where people fit in the organisation? Actually, no. What is on the org chart is the boxes that the people fit into. The roles, the positions, the grades and the […] Read More…
Do you have friends at work? It’s kind of nice, isn’t it? When I started in work back in the 80s, work was very much a social place. By that I mean there was a lot of social interaction, as well as the fact that socialising with your colleagues being encouraged. I made friends there […] Read More…
For too many people, work is crap. That’s why the levels of employee engagement are pitifully low, why the majority of employees would change job tomorrow if a better opportunity arose and why the workplace is awash with apathy. Too many work environments are toxic and harming the people in them, which is why – […] Read More…
It’s not surprising that in this in this age of technological revolution, many people reach for metaphors based on the invention of the age, the computer. They talk about ‘rebooting the system’, ‘installing new software’ and ‘re-programming’ things (sometimes, rather chillingly, they mean the people). They are trying to get across complex ideas in a […] Read More…
This is a famous painting by Renee Magritte of a pipe, that carries the legend ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’ (This is not a pipe). Well, it’s not, it’s a painting of a pipe. In fact, it’s a painting of a thing we call ‘a pipe’. The thing is what we put tobacco in and […] Read More…
This is not going to be one of those empty exhortations to grasp control of your destiny by getting off your arse and taking massive action. Nor is it going to imply that the you are to blame for the unsatisfactory job in an unsatisfactory organisation that you find yourself in. But if you are […] Read More…
Extinction Rebellion are a scourge for business, aren’t they? Blocking up the capital, disrupting people’s lives, causing business unnecessary delays and costs. What possible good can come from them? Well, for those businesses that know they need to change but aren’t sure how, Extinction Rebellion could just provide the answer. In fact, if they stopped […] Read More…