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Coercion, Fear and Ebola

24 June, 2019 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

A frightening disease There is an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Healthcare workers are desperately trying to contain the infection. The first signs of the disease appear within a couple of weeks of infection. They include fever, headaches and sore throats.  Vomiting and diarrhoea follow, then internal and external bleeding […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: command and control, fear and anxiety, human nature, motivation, perceived risk

I Feel the Need, the Need for Speed

2 October, 2018 by James Lawther Leave a Comment

How to win a war Historically there have been two ways to win a battle: Recruit a bigger army Build more powerful weapons They were the only variables that mattered.  Size and Power.  The number of soldiers you had and the calibre of their guns pretty much determined if you would win.  Conflicts were wars […]

Filed Under: Blog, Process Improvement Tagged With: analysis paralysis, command and control, decisions, empowerment, John Boyd, OODA Loop, purpose

The Puzzle of Motivation

3 September, 2018 by James Lawther 1 Comment

who've been studying motivation have given us this new approach.

TED Talk Dan Pink Improving employee performance is as easy as 1, 2, 3: Write an objective Define a metric Provide an incentive Then set people off to hit the goal.  It is just a question of building motivation. In his entertaining TED talk Dan Pink explains why this approach destroys motivation  instead of creating […]

Filed Under: Best of the Web, Blog Tagged With: beliefs, command and control, Daniel Pink, human nature, incentives, motivation, performance management, targets, video

Pointless Conversations

30 August, 2018 by James Lawther 1 Comment

Management meetings Do you ever lose the will to live in management meetings?  Sometimes they are so bad I want to scoop out my eyeballs with a tea-spoon.  I’d do anything to get out of the conversation. I hate futile meetings that are a waste of everybody’s time — usually highly paid people’s time. Here […]

Filed Under: Blog, Employee Engagement Tagged With: bureaucracy, command and control, cost saving, diversity, effective meetings, employee performance measures, forced fun, key performance indicators, management style, motivation, objective setting, office productivity, performance management, targets, waste, wasted intellect

Messy by Tim Harford — Book Review

5 August, 2018 by James Lawther 1 Comment

Messy Tim Harford

What is it about? According to the author, Tim Harford, Messy “celebrates the benefits that messiness has in our lives: why it’s important, why we resist it, and why we should embrace it instead”. According to Maria Konnikova’s New York Times review, “a less catchy, but perhaps more accurate, title for the book would be […]

Filed Under: Blog, Book Tagged With: beliefs, command and control, complexity, innovation, systems thinking, test and learn, Tim Harford

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