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The Clear Desk Policy

18 December, 2016 by James Lawther 6 Comments

Lean Office

Busting management myths I love social psychology, it fascinates me.  I particularly like experiments.  It is one thing to put forward a theory about why people behave the way that they do; it is another thing altogether to prove it with some data. Let me give you an example, how should you set up an office? […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: beliefs, command and control, empowerment, five s, management style, office productivity

A World Without Objectives

8 December, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

Marionette

Objectives: could we manage without them? How would we cope?  The guys in H.R. would throw up their hands in horror. We couldn’t rate our staff. Pay for performance would flounder. Annual appraisals would become a farce. We wouldn’t know what we were doing. How could we manage our businesses? But how do we manage with objectives? They just get […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: collaboration, command and control, human nature, objective setting, reinforcing behaviour, trust

The Management Dilemma

6 November, 2016 by James Lawther 1 Comment

Fair and Just

Scientific management Some people think management is a science.  It has clear rights and wrongs, with best practices to follow and benchmarks to beat.  Success lies in targets, goals and objectives; building the right processes and having the right infrastructure.  Organisations are just machines.  By applying cold hard logic you will get results. Clarity is a good […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: accountability, culture, management style, video

Why Do You Have a Boss?

18 October, 2016 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

The Boss

Pre History In the primordial swamp, single cell organisms developed.  They formed symbiotic relationships.  These relationships needed controlling.  So the organisms developed hormones, nervous systems and brains to help them function. The bacteria came before the lion. Ancient History On the fertile plains, people grouped together.  They built villages and towns.  As the towns grew they […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: back to the floor, management style, systems thinking

Blame and Ignorance

10 October, 2016 by James Lawther 2 Comments

White Range Rover

I made a fool of myself yesterday I had a road rage incident.  Well it wasn’t so much road rage as pedestrian rage. I was crossing the street on my way to the railway station and some clown in 4 by 4 damn near ran me over.  It ended up in a slagging match between me and […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: accident prevention, blame, human nature, ignorance, management style

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