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 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…
The fatuousness of Dominic Raab’s argument in the Newsnight item that I talked about in my last blog was at least matched by the disingenuity of Mervyn King, retired Governor of the Bank of England, later in the same item when he said that he was now ‘part of the gig economy’. Yeah, right, Merv. […] Read More…
I caught a bit of Newsnight yesterday evening and there was a film on the future of work, comparing it with 40 years ago (it being the anniversary of the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1989). In it, they visited Shirebrook, a mining community that lost its colliery after the miner’s strike and now has […] Read More…
According to the anthropologist David Graeber, most people in our economy are doing “bullshit jobs”, meaningless activities that only serve the machine and feed the hierarchy rather than make a real difference or economic contribution. Fewer and fewer people are doing productive jobs because these are increasingly being automated away, as was predicted by the […] Read More…
I am starting out, rather uncertainly, on a quest. I want to promote heart-centred leadership, intuitive and nurturing in style. I believe this is what the world needs today, to create organisations for the 21st century that release the potential of the people within them rather than trying to define them as narrow functions within […] Read More…
I am very excited by the idea of self-managing organisations. The evidence is that they are more successful, more profitable, more innovative, more adaptable, more resilient than conventionally-structured ones. They are happier, more creative places for people to work and people have higher levels of engagement, a greater sense of belonging and purpose and higher […] Read More…
I always expected to have a job, by which I mean a permanent employment contract for a large organisation. That was the way of my parents and my grand-parents and I never really gave it any thought. It’s just what you did. ‘Having a job’ was a lazy shorthand for having a particular lifestyle and […] Read More…
A widely-held view of a leader is someone who tells other people what to do, the one who gives the orders. It’s not a view I subscribe to but it is often an explicit part of the role for someone in a formal leadership position and the reality is those people have, and use, this […] Read More…
I almost don’t know where to start with this, it just seems such an evident truth to me. My own experiences of work have made me aware of how damaging and inhuman the modern organisation can be, whilst a brief discussion with friends will throw up all sorts of painful stories about how we are […] Read More…